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The Wonderful Teacher 













THE WORKS OF 






DAVID JAMES BURRELL 




The Wondebftji, 


Preacher of the Word is a 


TEACHEB AND WHAT 

He Taught 


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The purpose of this book 
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tures the Wonderful 


scope. 


Teacher Himselfj and 




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The Unaccountable 


the Kingdom, as the key 


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note of His teaching, it 
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ethics, etc., applying the 


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topical discussion of what 


ful reading. " — 1 h e 


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forceful style, a thor- 
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NEW TOBE CH] 


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The 

Wonderful Xeaeher 

and 
What He Taught 

By 

David James ^urrell, D.D, 

Pastor of the Collegiate Church 
at Fifth Avenue & 29th Street 



IS 




Fleming H. Revell Company 
New York Chicago Toronto 



* 



\4 



^£<\* 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CON OR ESS, 
optee Recsived 

6 1902 

ttLk ><}<>* 

CLASS fcXXo. No. 
*COPY 3. 



2 £ 

Copyright, 1902, by 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

(August) 



• • • • 

• • • 




<5 



CONTENTS 



INTRODUCTORY 
I. The Wonderful Teacher . 



PAGB 
II 



FUNDAMENTALS 
II. His Doctrine of God 

III. His Doctrine of Man 

IV. His Doctrine of Himself the God-Man 



27 
39 
5i 



THE KINGDOM AND ITS FACTORS 

V. The Kingdom 

VI. The Church . 

VII. The Scriptures 

VIII. The Holy Ghost 

IX. The Individv-1 



65 

77 

9» 
103 

"5 



ETHICS 

X. The Moral Law 

XI. The Ceremonial Law 
(7) 



127 
137 



CONTENTS 
ETHICS (Continued) 



XII. 


The Home . 








149 


XIII. 


The Labor Problem 








161 


XIV. 


Civil Government 








173 


XV. 


Missions 








185 


XVI. 


Wealth 








• 197 


XVII. 


The Sabbath 








209 


XVIII. 


Common Honesty 








221 


XIX. 


Temperance 








• 233 


XX. 


Prayer 








245 


XXI. 


The Work of God 








259 



LAST THINGS 
XXII. Maranatha 

XXIII. The Resurrection 

XXIV. The Day of Judgment 
XXV. The Future Life 



275 
289 

3°3 
315 



(8) 



Introductory 



THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 



THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

It is a singular fact that, whatever may be thought 
of the Messianic claims of Jesus, his preeminence as 
a teacher of truth and morality has been commonly 
conceded by fair-minded men. On one occasion the 
members of the Sanhedrin, learning that he had re- 
turned to Jerusalem despite their oft-repeated warn- 
ings, sent a detachment of soldiers to arrest him. 
They found him in Solomon's Porch preaching to 
the people and, unfortunately for the success of their 
errand, they paused to listen. Presently they returned 
empty-handed; and to the inquiry of their masters, 
"Why have ye not brought him?" they could only 
answer, "Never man spake like this man I" A strange 
report to be entered on the record of that judicial 
body. Yet all history abounds in such involuntary 
tributes paid to the eloquence of the Man of Nazareth 
by those who have gone forth against him. If it can- 
not be said of Josephus the Jew, Julian the Apostate 
and Celsus the Satirist, that they "went to scoff and 
remained to pray," it is indisputable that they frankly 
recognized the transcendent merit of Christ's teach- 
ing. Spinoza, the father of modern pantheism, says, 
"Christ was the temple of God; since God has most 
fully revealed himself in him." 

The infidel Rousseau exclaims, "What sweetness, 
(xi) 



12 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 

what purity in the manner of Christ ! What an affect- 
ing gracefulness in his instructions ! What sublimity 
in his maxims! What profound wisdom in his dis- 
courses ! What presence of mind, what subtlety, what 
fitness in his replies! How great his command over 
his passions! Where could he have learned, among 
his contemporaries, the pure and sublime morality 
which in both precept and example he has given us ?" 

Theodore Parker writes, "This man, ridiculed for 
his lack of knowledge in a nation of hypocritical 
priests and corrupt people, falls back on simple 
morality, on simple religion; he unites in himself 
the sublimest precepts and divinest practices, thus 
more than realizing the dream of prophets and 
sages; rises free from all prejudice of his age, 
nation or sect; gives free range to the Spirit of God 
in his breast; sets aside the law, sacred and time- 
honored as it was, its forms, its sacrifice, its temple 
and its priests; puts away the doctors of the law, 
subtle, learned, irrefragable, and pours out a doctrine 
beautiful as the light, sublime as heaven, and true 
as God. ,, 

David Strauss, the father of the Mythical The- 
ory of the Gospels, says, "In Jesus the union of 
self-consciousness with the consciousness of God has 
been real, and expressed not only verbally, but actu- 
ally in all the conditions of his life. He represents 
within the religious sphere the highest point, beyond 
which posterity cannot go; yea, whom it cannot even 
equal, inasmuch as every one who hereafter should 
climb the same height, could only do it with the help 
of Jesus who first attained it." 

Ernest Renan, advocate of the Legendary Theory, 



THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 13 

says of Christ's teaching: "Its morality is the high- 
est creation which has emanated from the human 
conscience, the most beautiful code of perfect life 
that any moralist has traced" : and of the Teacher 
himself, "Whatever may be the surprises of the 
future, this Jesus will never be surpassed. His 
worship will grow young without ceasing; his 
legend will call forth tears without end; his suf- 
ferings will melt the noblest hearts; all ages will 
proclaim, that, among the sons of men, there is 
none born greater than Jesus." Thus, while the 
unbelieving world may reject his divine claims, the 
calm majesty of the great Teacher in the midst of 
the assemblage ever overawes it. 

How shall this be accounted for? What was the 
secret of his popularity with the masses ; a popularity 
so great that it provoked an envious hostility among 
all contemporary religious leaders? And what is it 
in his discourses that has called forth the involuntary 
praise of his enemies through the ages? He was a 
mere peasant, with no patronage or influential follow- 
ing ; his gown and surplice, a homespun coat ; his pul- 
pit the hillside or a boat moored by the margin of 
the lake; his auditorium the blue canopy of the over- 
arching skies ; his audience the procession of the ages. 
See him yonder at the street corner; the multitude 
gathered about him with faces upturned in eager 
attention; they hang upon his lips; they throng his 
steps wherever he goes. 

What was the secret of his power? This prob- 
lem is commended to professors of homiletics in 
our theological seminaries. Find out the secret 
of his power, learned brethren, and you solve the 



i 4 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 

homiletic art. Let preachers who, as Cowper says, 
" mount the rostrum with a skip, pronounce a 
text, cry, 'Hem!' and then skip down again," take note 
of this. There was a Preacher once who never spake 
to empty pews. Is it true that the pulpit of our 
time has lost power ? Certain it is that there are possi- 
bilities of power into which it has not entered as yet, 
nor ever will until it rids itself of artificial forms, 
catchpenny devices and adventitious attractions and 
gets back to the method of Christ. Tell us, O won- 
derful Teacher of Nazareth, wherein thy great power 
lieth? 

We note at the outset that the Themes of Christ's 
discourse were only and always such as find a quick 
response, pro or contra, in the hearts of men. He 
spoke of great fundamental facts, of such as have 
to do with spiritual and eternal life. 

He was a Doctrinal Preacher. But the doctrines 
which he presented were briefly comprehended in one 
which touches the vital, universal chord of interest; 
to wit, the plan of salvation. For deep down in the 
heart of the average man, however he may refuse 
to confess this even to himself, there is a constant 
cry, "What shall I do to be saved?" Jesus meets 
this inquiry more than half way and points out clearly 
the pathway of life. This is the sum and substance 
of his doctrinal teaching. 

To those who expected to be saved by personal 
merit he addressed the parable of the Pharisee and 
Publican (Luke 18, 10-14), making it clear that jus- 
tification is not meted out to the self-righteous but to 
such as make humble confession of their sins. 

To those who hoped for salvation by reason of 



THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 15 

their conformity to the ceremonial law, the high 
churchmen of his time, he directed his most faithful 
warnings: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, 
hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise 
and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters 
of the law, judgment, mercy and faith: these ought 
ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. — 
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for 
ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed ap- 
pear beautiful outwardly, but are within full of dead 
men's bones, and of all uncleanness. — Ye serpents, 
ye generation of vipers! How can ye escape the 
damnation of hell?" (Matt. 23, 23-33.) 

To those who trusted to their acceptance of ortho- 
dox forms of belief he spoke with faithful severity. 
A doctor of divinity came to him under cover of 
darkness, saying, "Rabbi, we know thou art a teacher 
come from God:" but Jesus, paying no heed to the 
empty compliment, directed his answer straight at the 
unspoken longing of Nicodemus' soul, saying, "Ver- 
ily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born 
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 

3, 3). 

The way of life, as he declared it, is a straight 
and narrow way. It is briefly contained in the words, 
"God so loved the world that he gave his only-begot- 
ten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not 
perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3, 16). He 
says that he himself is "the door of the sheepfold," 
and that if a man undertake to climb up any other 
way, he is a thief and a robber. There is no mistaking 
the condition which he affixes to the unspeakable gift : 
"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; 



16 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 

and he that believeth not, the wrath of God abideth on 
him" (John 3, 36). 

Not only did Jesus make this plan of salvation the 
vital center of his doctrine, but he made himself the 
living Center of all truth. He who would be saved 
must accept Christ himself, not as a historic fact but 
as a personal Saviour, in such wise that his life shall 
be united with Christ's. This is the meaning of those 
far-reaching words : "Except a man eat the flesh and 
drink the blood of the Son of man, he hath no 
life in him" (John 6, 53). It is personal faith in the 
personal Christ that saves. The ultimate test of 
Christian orthodoxy is in his saying, "I am the truth." 
The man who accepts salvation in Christ must obvious- 
ly accept the teaching of Christ as true and ultimate 
in all things whatsoever. This is saving faith; which 
enables us to say, "I no longer live, but Christ liveth 
in me," and, "My life is hid with Christ in God." 

But Christ was also an Ethical Preacher. The 
value of the doctrine which he set forth was meas- 
ured by its transmutation into life. It must be 
expressed in terms of walk and conversation. A man's 
first duty is to accept Christ himself as Prophet, Priest 
and King; that being attended to, rules of conduct 
are in order. We hear much of the splendid ethics of 
the Sermon on the Mount; but let it be remembered 
that the Sermon on the Mount was addressed to the 
disciples of Jesus. It is a system of ethics for those 
who have accepted his pardoning grace and set out 
to follow him. The first thing must be done first; 
the second is to follow Christ in keeping the moral 
law. Thus to his followers he says, "Ye are the light 
of the world. Let your light so shine before men, 



THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 17 

that they may see your good works, and glorify your 
Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 5, 14-16). And 
again, "Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt 
have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It 
is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, 
and to be trodden under foot of men" (Matt. 5, 13). 

He sets forth rules of conduct for all the concentric 
circles of life. Beginning at home, the innermost circle 
he has much to say about the ethics of marriage and 
of filial love. Then in the wider circle of society 
he sets forth justice, common honesty and that broad 
charitableness which should control men in their rela- 
tions with their fellow men. In the still wider field 
of politics he enunciates the all-embracing principle, 
"Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, 
and unto God the things that are God's" (Matt. 22, 
21). But the ethical system of Christ reaches further 
still. It is cosmopolitan. His follower is a citizen 
of the world. In the parable of the Good Samaritan 
he teaches that the man at the antipodes is as really 
our neighbor as he who lives next door. Then logically 
follows the great commission, "Go ye therefore into 
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature ; 
and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the 
present order of things." 

The ethics of Jesus, thus set forth in his teaching, 
find their perfect illustration in his own life and char- 
acter. His challenge is, "Which of you convicteth me 
of sin?" His biography is written in this wonderful 
monograph : "He went about doing good." He came 
from heaven to bring the world back to righteousness 
and thus to accomplish the restitution of all things. 
This is "that far-off, divine event to which the whole 



18 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 

creation moves." The character of Jesus, duplicated 
imperfectly in that of his disciples, is the leaven which 
is ultimately to leaven the lump of human life and 
history, and "bind the whole round world as with gold 
chains about the feet of God." 

We have spoken of the Themes of Christ's dis- 
course; let us turn now to his Method of Treatment. 
And here again we shall perceive that "never man 
spake like this man." 

Observe his Simplicity. He advanced no abstruse 
propositions and used no sesquipedalian phrases. He 
made no reference to philosophy or science as such, 
though his teachings challenge all philosophic and 
scientific tests. He spoke to plain people and ad- 
dressed himself to their common sense. His word was 
like an ocean, on whose shore philosophers may stand 
and gaze afar with wonder, and where little children 
sport in the mighty waters which bathe their feet. 
One day he took a little child upon his knee and 
admonished his hearers that unless their attitude 
toward truth was as humble and receptive as that of 
childhood, they should in no wise enter the kingdom 
of God. No man in his audience ever knit his brows 
and wondered what the preacher was aiming at: for 
the word of Jesus had an incomparable directness, so 
that every listener was moved to say, "This means 
me. 

Then observe its Picturesqueness. The great 
Teacher was not above the kindergarten method. He 
was master of the parable. He illuminated his ser- 
mons by reference to everything in life and nature, 
finding "tongues in trees, sermons in stones, books in 
the running brooks and good in everything." Would 



THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 19 

he declare the goodness of God? He points to a 
father awaiting the return of his wayward son. The 
doctrine of providence? "Consider the lilies of the 
field, the fowls of the air; your Father careth for 
them, shall he not much more care for you?" The 
responsibilities of wealth? A farmer is counting his 
gains when a voice from heaven interrupts him : "Thou 
fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee!" 
The final judgment? "As a shepherd divideth his 
sheep from the goats." Heaven? "In my Father's 
house are many mansions ; I go to prepare a place for 
you." The Kingdom? "A mustard seed planted in 
the ground ; which is indeed the least of all seeds, but 
when it is grown it becometh a tree so that the fowls 
of the air lodge in the branches of it." The grace of 
giving? A poor widow casts her two mites into 
corban; and "behold, she hath given more than they 
all." Thus the great Preacher threw the truth into 
such bold relief that the common people rejoiced to 
hear it. 

And how Practical his teaching was. The "appli- 
cation" of his sermon was not reserved for the close, 
but ran all through it. Wherefore Coleridge could 
say, "It finds me." So far as we know, he never 
preached but one written sermon and that was when 
the woman taken in adultery was brought to him in 
Solomon's Porch by the priests and rabbis, who said, 
"Moses in the law commanded us to stone such; 
but what sayest thou? " He stooped down and wrote 
on the pavement ; and they read, "Let him that is with- 
out sin cast the first stone at her." No need of any 
further application. "They went out one by one 
beginning at the eldest." His word was like a nail 



2o THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 

driven by the master of assemblies; it found its way 
to the center of life. It was as a two-edged sword 
to divide asunder the soul and spirit of a man; and 
it was like balm of Gilead to heal the wound. It was 
so direct that the unrighteous gnashed their teeth at 
him: while the penitent came and anointed his feet. 
It comforted the sorrowing, so that they mingled 
their tears with his. Application! His discourse 
was applied truth. It was applied ethics. It showed 
men how to live and how to die. He told no dreams ; 
he ventured on no speculations. He aimed at heart 
and reason and conscience. This was why the people 
thronged his steps. This was why the ungodly rulers 
were offended at him. This was why they killed him. 
Let us attend also to the Completeness of Christ's 
teaching. He set forth comprehensively all things that 
are necessary to character and usefulness. Some of 
the most vital truths could, in the necessity of the case, 
be presented only in silhouette, since as yet his dis- 
ciples were "not able to bear them" (Mark 4, 33; 
John 16, 12). The most important of these truths 
was the Atonement. Not until his last fateful journey 
through Csesarea-Philippi did Jesus venture to speak 
frankly and openly concerning the great tragedy which 
was presently to be enacted for the salvation of men. 
But from the beginning of his ministry this had been 
more or less clearly outlined; as in his conversation 
with Nicodemus: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in 
the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be 
lifted up" (John 3, 14 And the great Teacher made 
abundant provision that such truth as could only 
be outlined by himself should subsequently be filled 
out. It must be remembered that he did not profess 



THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 21 

to complete his system of truth. He only "began to 
teach" (Acts 1, 1). His words were the opening 
chapter of a complete revelation which was to be con- 
tinued by his disciples who were to write further 
Scripture as they were moved by the Spirit of God. 
On these accredited writers of Scripture our Lord 
breathed his Spirit, saying, "He shall lead you into 
all truth." And he distinctly gave to their writings 
an authority equal to his own, saying, "He that heareth 
you, heareth me." In the teaching of Jesus himself 
we have all the salient points of Christian truth : and 
these, together with such formulation and elaboration 
as were subsequently made by the apostles under his 
explicit imprimatur, furnish a full, symmetrical and 
final system of doctrine and ethics. 

This leads us to indicate another, and, perhaps, the 
most significant feature of Christ's teaching; to wit, 
its Authority. His hearers were "amazed: for he 
taught them as one having authority, and not as the 
scribes" (Matt. 7, 29). The word here rendered 
"authority" is exousia and it designates an inward 
source. Our Lord taught not as the scribes, who 
referred for their authority to other teachers, but as 
one who could say, "I am the Truth." He taught not 
like the prophets, who introduced their discourses with 
"Thus saith the Lord," since he and the Father were 
in such complete harmony that their word was one. 
Wherefore he speaks on this wise: "Verily, verily, 
I say unto you." How bold is this manifesto ! Who is 
this that sets his ipse dixit against precedent, tradition, 
the teaching of all ancient worthies? How this "I 
say unto you" goes crashing through the elaborate 
fabrics which had been set up by courts and councils ! 



22 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

Here is a tone of authority which finds no parallel 
except in the thunders of Sinai. No other preacher 
can dogmatize in this manner. He who presumes to 
say, "I am Sir Oracle, and when I ope my lips, let no 
dog bark," is laughed at for his pains. And yet we 
preach Christ with a " Verily, verily/' because we rest 
upon the authority of his word. This leaves no room 
for guesses or speculations; it is final, complete, con- 
clusive. We are admonished against adding to it or 
subtracting from it. Our coign of vantage is here: 
"Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said 
unto you." 

Is there indeed a lost chord in the preaching of 
our time? They say the pulpit has "lost its grip on 
the people." If Samson, foreordained and divinely 
commissioned to deliver Israel, sits under the arch- 
way of Dagon's temple grinding at the mill for the 
delectation of passers by, it must be that his strength 
has departed from him. O for the day of a renewed 
covenant! The secret of increasing power is in get- 
ting "back to Christ." This is one of the shibboleths 
of our time; and it goes deeper than would appear. 
Back to Christ! Aye; but to what Christ? Not to 
that hypothetical Christ whom a sentimental age has 
conjured forth out of its own imagination; a Christ 
of love without justice, of tears without conscience, 
of heart without reason. No, back to the historic 
Christ ! To Christ as the Bible reveals him ; the virile 
Christ who offers a boundless mercy in terms con- 
sistent with the integrity of the moral Law. Back 
to Christ, who spake not only of a heaven of unspeak- 
able delights, but of a hell "where their fire is not 
quenched and their worm dieth not." Back to Christ, 



THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 23 

who, stretching out his hands, cried with infinite 
tenderness, "Come unto me"; and who also expressed 
his detestation of sin in woes that fell like lightnings 
from his lips. Back to the Christ who not only died 
upon the cross for us men and our salvation, but who 
is coming again to sit upon a throne of judgment, 
saying to the faithful, "Well done !" and to the incor- 
rigibly wicked, "Depart from me !" We have no power 
in the teaching of the gospel save as we echo the teach- 
ings of Jesus, from whose divine authority proceed 
the issues of life and death : for he said, "Whosoever 
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will 
liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon 
a rock: and the rain descended and the floods came, 
and the winds blew and beat upon that house; and 
it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock. And 
every one that heareth these sayings of mine and 
doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man 
which built his house upon the sand: and the rain 
descended and the floods came and the winds blew 
and beat upon that house; and it fell; and great was 
the fall of it" (Matt. 7, 24-27), 



FUNDAMENTALS 



II 

HIS DOCTRINE OF GOD 



II 



HIS DOCTRINE OF GOD 

We are bound to find God. The other sciences are 
important, but theology is indispensable. As it is writ- 
ten: "This is life eternal, to know God" (John 17, 3). 
We are sensible of our divine birth, and none the less 
sensible of having fallen from our original estate. 
"We came forth from God," said Augustine, "and 
we shall never rest until we return to him." The 
alienated soul is like a child lost among strangers, 
wild-eyed, lips trembling, eyes searching vainly for 
a familiar face. Ah, here the mother comes ; and now 
the child is sobbing out its happiness on her loving 
bosom. So is it when the sinner finds God. 

But where is he? "O that I knew where I might 
find him ! Behold, I go forward, but he is not there ; 
and backward, but I cannot perceive him: on the left 
hand where he doth work, but I cannot behold him; 
he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot 
see him" (Job 23, 3-9). The horizons recede while 
we gaze : the darkness thickens as we grope like blind 
men feeling their way along the wall. 

Just here we meet Christ, bringing his message 
straight from the throne. He comes to declare God. 
He is called "The Word"; that is, the medium of 
communication between the Infinite and the finite; 
the Articulate Speech of God. "All things are deliv- 

(27) 



28 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 

ered unto me of my Father," he says; "and no man 
knoweth the Father, but the Son, and he to whom- 
soever the Son will reveal him" (Matt. II, 27). 

Let us sit at his feet, therefore, and learn theology. 
As his disciples we assume a docile attitude. He is 
our Prophet, and his word is ultimate. What has 
he to say about God ? 

First : as to his Being. It is significant that here 
Jesus has little or nothing to say. If we wish a 
demonstration of the divine existence we must go 
to the Theological Seminaries, where the problem is 
fully discussed in cosmological, ontological and teleo- 
logical phrases. But the silence of Jesus is more 
eloquent than speech: since the Divine Being is the 
substratum of his entire doctrine, without which it 
would be as unsubstantial as a painted ship upon a 
painted ocean. And why should he — or for that matter 
we — undertake to demonstrate a fact which rests, as an 
intuition, at the bottom of the universal heart? Not 
with more certainty does the average man say, "I am" 
than he says, "God is." It must be remembered, more- 
over, that Jesus postulates his teaching on the truth 
of Scripture, saying, "Search the Scriptures; for in 
them ye think ye have eternal life and these are they 
which testify of me." We approach the Book in pur- 
suance of that injunction, and we find its initial 
sentence, "In the beginning God." 

Second : as to the Personality of God. The teach- 
ing of Christ at this point is very clear. At the begin- 
ning of his ministry he said to the woman of Samaria, 
"God is a spirit; and they that worship him must 
worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4, 24). 
Now a spirit, though invisible and impalpable, is real 



HIS DOCTRINE OF GOD. 29 

and personal : not a figment of the imagination but a 
self-conscious entity. 

We find accordingly that the attitude of Jesus 
toward this Spirit is indubitably that of one person 
toward another. How close their communion! It 
is as if the two were face to face, with a veil of in- 
visibility between them. To what or to whom was 
he speaking in Gethsemane when he cried, "O my 
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me"? 
Can we for a moment conceive that he was addressing 
an insensate Law or an all-pervading Force or the 
impersonal Soul of the Universe or a "Something not 
Ourselves that maketh for Righteousness" ? To whom 
or to what did he speak again in his last agony, "My 
God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?" Was 
this an appeal to the inanimate skies, or to the gather- 
ing darkness? Impossible. It was this close relation 
of the personal Son with the personal Father that 
made him a competent witness in these premises; as 
John the forerunner had said concerning him, "The 
only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the 
Father, he hath declared him." 

A due apprehension of this truth is of the utmost 
importance to our spiritual life. We are living in 
a time when there is a manifest disposition, in certain 
quarters, to eliminate the personal factor from the 
definition of God. Yet there is the very foundation 
of practical religion; as Paul says, "He that cometh 
to God must believe that he is, and that he is a re- 
warder of them that diligently seek him." The sins, 
shortcomings and moral delinquencies of life all have 
their origin in a denial or obliviousness of this truth. 
We say, "I believe in God the Father Almighty ;" but 



3 o THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 

let us grasp tHat idea for a moment and see how it 
will master us. Blessed is the man who has wrestled 
with it, as Jacob did with the Theophany at Jabbok, 
until it has flung him. He rises from the struggle a 
new man, worsted, crippled by the mighty truth. He 
goes upon his way thenceforth like Jacob, limping 
but believing. He is dominated in all his plans and 
purposes by the tremendous fact that God is; that he 
is a personal God ; that he has eyes to see, ears to 
hear, a heart to feel and hands to help. This is the 
thought which the life and character and teaching of 
Jesus bring to the fore. God is a real God ; a seeing, 
hearing, feeling God. 

Third : as to the Divine Immanence ; that is, God's 
relation to the world and its affairs. It is a singular 
fact that God as the Creator is not mentioned or re- 
ferred to directly or indirectly in the discourses of 
Jesus. Yet this is not surprising when we consider 
that Jesus was preaching, not to philosophers but to 
average men. No doubt there were evolutionists in 
his congregations, intent then as now on erasing 
God from the philosophy of the universe and tracing 
all things back through the calm operation of natural 
laws to the primordial germ. The dream of auto- 
genesis is as old as the imagination of man. But 
Christ was not preaching to this sort of people. If 
there is a reader of these words who holds that the 
world is a fortuitous concourse of atoms, that there 
are things without a maker, effects without causes, 
design without a designer, law without a lawgiver 
or administrator, the great Teacher has nothing for 
that man. He will not utter truth as men pour water 
on the ground. He will not waste his words on minds 



HIS DOCTRINE OF GOD. 31 

tHat are proof against the approaches of common sense. 
He declines to enter into a demonstration of the 
proposition, Ex nihilo nihil fit. He falls back here 
again upon the veracity of Holy Writ, saying, " Search 
the Scriptures." We approach them accordingly and 
hear them saying, "In the beginning God created." 
As followers of Christ, let that suffice us. 

But with reference to divine Providence the teach- 
ing of Jesus is large, positive and intensely practical. 
It must be so for obvious reasons. While God as 
the original Cause is an axiom of science, his Provi- 
dence may be denied, is practically denied, and indeed 
is rarely accepted in its full significance even by the 
most devout of men. We are always in danger of 
swinging off to either of two extremes: on the one 
hand to Automatism, which asks us to believe that 
God made the worlds, endowed them with self-oper- 
ating laws and flung them out upon their orbits to 
take care of themselves ; on the other to Pantheism, 
which speaks on this wise: "God is everything and 
everything is God: I am God: there is nothing but 
God ; all else is, as the Buddhists say, maya y or illu- 
sion." Now the doctrine of Christ lies in between 
these two, along the golden mean. He teaches that 
God is in and over all. He leads us out to the 
hillsides and bids us "behold the lilies of the field, 
how they grow," assuring us that our Father who 
cares for them will much more care for us (Matt. 6, 
25-34). "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?" 
he asks; "and one of them shall not fall upon the 
ground without your Father. But the very hairs of 
your head are all numbered" (Matt. 10, 29-31). Thus 
was the doctrine of Providence put in familiar terms : 



32 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 

for his hearers were accustomed to see the farmers 
of Judea come to market with sparrows strung on 
willow twigs, offering them for sale, two for a farth- 
ing. The God who heard the twittering of the 
wounded bird as it fluttered to the earth, would 
surely not forget his children. 

In this fundamental truth we have the rationale 
of prayer : "Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and 
ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." 
Our Lord taught that the Father cares for us not 
merely in great matters but in infinitesimals. He is 
the God of nations, hearing when kings and rulers 
take counsel together, saying, "Let us break his bands 
asunder and cast away his cords from us," hearing 
and laughing and holding them in derision. And he 
regards the needs of the humblest of suffering men. 
O wonderful eyes of the Lord, that run to and fro 
through all the earth beholding the evil and the good ! 
O great heart of God, quick to respond to every cry 
for help! The doctrine of prayer as taught by Jesus 
is exceedingly simple. We are to hasten to God with 
our desires as children run to their mothers in time 
of need: for "if ye being evil, know how to give 
good gifts unto your children, how much more 
shall your Father which is in heaven give good things 
to them that ask him" (Matt. 7, 11). 

Fourth: as to the Moral Attributes of God. The 
emphasis of Christ's teaching is placed here, because 
at this point it touches most nearly the eternal welfare 
of men. 

Our Lord taught the divine Holiness in uneqivocal 
terms ; praying, "O holy Father !" We speak of this 
as an attribute of God: but rather it is the condition 



HIS DOCTRINE OF GOD. 33 

of his Being or the atmosphere in which he per- 
petually dwells. It is the Light emanating from his 
throne, of which Christ is the supreme manifestation; 
as he said, "I am the Light of the world." And this 
Light must ever be reflected in the life and conduct of 
Christ's disciples, as he said, "Ye are the light of 
the world; let your light so shine before men that 
they may see your good works and glorify God." 
This divine holiness is not merely freedom from moral 
contamination, but an infinitely sensitive aversion to 
sin which makes it impossible for God to look with 
complacency upon any creature who is in any wise 
defiled with it. Hence the appeal of Jesus for the 
cultivation of a holy life, since without holiness no 
man shall see God. 

Out of this vital atmosphere of the divine per- 
sonality proceed two attributes which, like opening 
arms, embrace the world. One of them is Love. This 
was comprehensively taught by our Lord in his con- 
stant reference to God as "our Father." Madame de 
Stael said truly that if Christ had never done 
anything in the world except to teach us to say, "Our 
Father which art in heaven," he would have con- 
ferred an inestimable boon upon us. The proof of 
the Father's love is in his perpetual gifts. His bounti- 
ful hand is ever open. Our food and raiment are 
from him (Matt. 6, 25-33). And these gifts are 
without respect of persons; "He sendeth rain on 
the just and on the unjust" (Matt. 5, 45). But the 
crowning token of his love is in the grace of salva- 
tion. "God so loved the world that he gave his only- 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should 
not perish but have eternal life^ (John 3, 16). Who 



34 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 

shall fathom the depths of that word, "So"! His 
seeking love is declared in the parables of the Woman 
and the Lost Coin, of the Shepherd and the Lost 
Sheep, of the Father shading his eyes and looking 
off toward the far country, hoping for the return of 
his wayward son (Luke 15). 

The other of the embracing arms of God is his 
Justice; that is, his respect for law. This is the 
complement of the divine love; and no presentation 
of that love, however pathetic or eloquent, can be 
complete without it. The love that is worthy of a 
holy God must pay deference to the holy law. Now 
no teacher ever lived who so deeply emphasized the 
sanctity of the Moral Law as did Jesus. He said, 
"I am not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it. 
Not one jot or tittle of the law shall pass away until 
all be fulfilled" (Matt. 5, 17-19). He defended not 
only the law itself but the justice of the penalties 
which are affixed to the violation of it. If any one 
doubts the virility of Christ's conception of justice, 
let him read the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew. 
He speaks there, as elsewhere, in no uncertain language 
as to the awards and penalties of the Great Day. 
The punishment of the wicked is aionios, "eternal, 
everlasting." The separation of the wicked from 
the righteous is likewise eternal: "There is a great 
gulf fixed" (Luke 16, 26). The inevitable conse- 
quence of persistence in sin is spiritual and eternal 
death : a death which is characterized as ' ' outer dark- 
ness," "the fire that is not quenched," "the worm that 
dieth not." 

Our Lord teaches us, moreover, that the Recon- 
ciliation between love and justice — the two great moral 



HIS DOCTRINE OF GOD. 35 

attributes of Deity — is to be found at the Cross. Here 
' ' mercy and truth are met together, righteousness 
and peace have kissed each other." It is inevitable 
that the penalty of sin should be inflicted; it must be 
inflicted either upon the malefactor or upon some 
competent substitute who shall volunteer to suffer 
for him: Christ says, "Here am I, send me." The 
justice of God is manifest in the suffering of his 
only-begotten and well-beloved Son.* O divine defer- 
ence to the sanctity of law ! And his love is manifest 
preeminently in the proffer of all the benefits of that 
vicarious death on the sole condition of faith. As 
it is written, "He that believeth on the Son hath ever- 
lasting life; and he that believeth not, the wrath of 
God abideth on him" (John 3, 36). 

If exception be taken to the fairness of this pro- 
ceeding as indicated by Christ in his constant teaching 
with reference to the Cross, let it be remembered that 
here is the setting forth of a Covenant. The three 
parties to this Covenant are God the Father, God the 
Son, and the sinner. The willingness of God the 
Father is asserted in this that he "sent" his well- 
beloved Son. The willingness of Christ is asserted 
in the fact that he "came," came of his own volition, 
came saying, "I rejoice to do thy will!" If now the 
party of the third part, to wit, the sinner, is willing 
and acquiescent, who shall object? Who in the wide 
world can object, is competent to offer an objection? So 
God is able to be " just and the justifier of the un- 



M * The wrath of God against sin is so great that, rather than that it should go 
unpunished, he hath punished the same in his Beloved Son." Communion 
Office of the Reformed Church. 



36 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 

godly"; that is, of all who accept the proffer of his 
grace. 

It is thus apparent that Christ set forth roundly, 
symmetrically, completely and finally the true doctrine 
of the one true God. If we are Christians, we are 
bound to receive God as Christ declared him. The 
man who makes a god out of his own imagination is 
as truly an idolater as if he made an idol out of 
wood or stone. A god who is all love without regard 
to justice, or who is, on the other hand, all justice 
without regard to love, is a moral monstrosity. No 
such god has any existence in fact ; and he is certainly 
not the God whom Christ has revealed to us. 

A word in conclusion : Plain as the teaching of 
Jesus is with reference to God, the clearest and com- 
pletest revelation of the divine nature and char- 
acter is to be found not in his teaching but in himself. 
He came to unveil God in his own person to the 
children of men. He is God incarnate; "the Word 
was made flesh and dwelt among us." He is "the 
fullness of the Godhead bodily." I doubt if we shall 
ever behold the essential God, if we shall ever see 
him otherwise than he has made himself manifest in 
Christ. If we are prepared to take Christ at his word 
and personally believe in him, we shall walk no more 
in perplexity and bewilderment crying like Job, "O 
that I knew where I might find God I" For the only- 
begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, 
he hath declared him. To Philip, who said, "Show us 
the Father and it sufficeth us", he answered — and his 
answer must be the sum and substance of our theology 
— "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast 
thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me, 



HIS DOCTRINE OF GOD. 37 

hath seen the Father ; and how sayest thou then, Show 
us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the 
Father, and the Father in me? The words that I 
speak unto you I speak not of myself : but the Father 
that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me 
that I am in the Father, and the Father in me" (John 
14, 8-1 1). 



Ill 

HIS DOCTRINE OF MAN 



Ill 



HIS DOCTRINE OF MAN 

A century ago the world was studying Theology. 
The results were such as might have been anticipated 
from the fact that the Infinite is not to be compre- 
hended by the finite mind. The common feeling with 
reference to this matter was expressed by Alexander 
Pope in the words : 

" Know then thyself : presume not God to scan : 
The proper study of mankind is man." 

So, as time passed, Theology gave way to Anthro- 
pology : thus the scientific study of to-day has to 
do predominantly with the doctrine of man. Is the 
result satisfactory? It might be supposed that an 
age which boasts of its attainments in biology, physi- 
ology, psychology, and sociology would be able to 
speak with great definiteness as to the subject in 
hand: but there is, on the contrary, the widest possi- 
ble divergence of opinion. At one extreme there is 
such a vainglorious trumpeting of the Dignity of 
Man as amounts to a practical shoving aside of the 
Infinite to make room for a puffed-up creature whose 
breath is in his nostrils: at the other a rare humility 
which makes us kinsmen of the beasts that perish. 
Is it not singular that certain people who find fault 
with Isaac Watts for singing, "Great God, how in- 
finite art thou ; what worthless worms are we !" should 

(39) 



4 o THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 

insist upon a scientific proposition which makes man 
the lineal descendant of a mollusk, a mere ripened 
germ, "a stomach with its appurtenances"? They 
define emotion to be heat thrown off by our physical 
machinery: the brain is phosphorous; and thought is 
the result of atomic friction. Am I a dog that I 
should believe this thing? In between the extremes 
indicated are all sorts of opinions with reference to 
man: so that he remains a complex problem; his 
very definition being only less elusive than the defini- 
tion of God. 

1 ' How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, 
How complicate, how wonderful is man ! 
How passing wonder He who made him such, 
Who centered in our make such strange extremes ! 
From different natures marvelously mixt, 
Connexion exquisite of distant worlds ! 
Distinguisht link in being's endless chain, 
Midway from nothing to the Deity ! 
A beam ethereal, sully' d, and absorpt ; 
Tho' sully' d, and dishonour' d, still divine! 
Dim miniature of greatness absolute ! 
An heir of glory ! a frail child of dust ! 
Helpless immortal ! insect infinite ! 
A worm! A god! " 

We turn for enlightenment to Christ, our authori- 
tative Teacher, who was competent to speak in these 
premises, since he was "Son of Man"; that is, the 
ideal or representative Man; of whom it is written, 
"He needed not that any should testify of man: for 
he himself knew what was in man." 

We find in his teaching, to begin with, a consider- 
able number of passages (which taken together may 
be called the First Chapter in his Philosophy of Man) 
concerning the Origin of Man and his Place in the 



HIS DOCTRINE OF MAN. 41 

Universal System. It should be observed, however, 
that his Creation is not once directly referred to. For 
this, as for like fundamental facts, our Lord points 
us to the Scriptures, saying, "Search them." We open 
them accordingly and read: "God said, 'Let us make 
man in our image, after our likeness'; and he formed 
man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into 
his nostrils the breath of life ; and man became a living 
soul" (Gen. 1, 26; 2, 7). 

The teaching of Jesus, founded on this proposition 
as a postulate, is briefly summarized in two suggestive 
words. One of them is "Father." Not less than sixty- 
five times does our Lord mention the Fatherhood of 
God. This can mean only that man is by creation a 
child of God. And this fact is stated generically, 
with no reference to the moral character of any par- 
ticular man. In the philosophy of Jesus all sorts and 
conditions of men, it matters not how far they have 
wandered from truth and righteousness, are children 
of God. The gibbering idiot is a child of God. The 
drunkard in the gutter is a child of God. The crim- 
inals who fill our jails are children of God. Aye, 
though the leprosy of vice has eaten into the marrow 
of their bones, the sign manual of the great Father is 
still upon their brows. Their life is the breath of 
God. 

The other significant word is "Brother," which 
indicates man's place in the universal system. Our 
Lord in his discourses makes frequent references to 
this Brotherhood of Man, which is indeed the neces- 
sary corollary and sequence of the Fatherhood of 
God. Out of it flows the Golden Rule, "Do unto 
others as ye would be done by." It furnishes the 



42 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 

rational basis of the doctrine of human equality, from 
which proceed all great manifestoes of human rights. 
Our Lord was no respecter of persons; to him there 
was no significance in those adventitious conditions 
which separate the lord of the manor from the 
servant in his field. He championed the rights of 
"God's poor" and the devil's poor, of the friendless 
and suffering, of little children, of Gentiles, of the 
lapsed and submerged masses. His regard for them 
was like that of Surgeon Boudon who, when Cardinal 
Du Bois had asked special treatment, replied, "My 
lord Cardinal, the poorest of my patients is a Prime 
Minister in my eyes." It is this high estimate of 
manhood for its own sake that will yet bring in the 
Golden Age. It is destined to solve all social prob- 
lems. It will make an end of meanness and selfish- 
ness; an end of unfriendly litigation; an end of strikes 
and lockouts ; an end of wars and rumors of wars. 
Courts of arbitration can but patch up brief armis- 
tices, but the doctrine of Jesus will ultimately bring 
in the Truce of God. 

" Then let us pray that come it may, — 

As come it will for a' that, — 
That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth, 

May bear the gree and a' that. 
For a' that, and a* that, 
It's coming yet, for a' that, — 
When man to man, the warld o'er, 

Shall brothers be for a' that ! " 

The Second Chapter in Christ's Philosophy of Man 
has reference to Man's Degeneration. At this point 
let it be observed that he has nothing to say respect- 
ing the Fall. He assumes the fact, which everybody 



HIS DOCTRINE OF MAN. 43 

concedes, that somewhere in the remote past there 
was a tragedy of some sort which deeply affected the 
moral character and destiny of the entire race. For 
particulars he refers us again to the Book. We open 
it and read how man at the beginning was subjected 
to a moral test which he failed to meet: with a re- 
sult so lamentably patent that it requires no proof. 
This factor is ever manifest in the problem, whether 
it be called " heredity " or "original sin." 

The moral status of the race, as described by Jesus, 
is briefly comprehended in the word "lost." We are, 
by nature, lost to God, to self-respect, to truth and 
righteousness, to happiness and heaven. In other 
words, we are sinners. And there is no room for a 
difference of opinion as to what Christ thought about 
sin. No teacher ever lived who so deeply emphasized 
its sinfulness. It is not a mere superficial defect, but 
a disease of the heart: "For from within, out of the 
heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornica- 
tions, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, de- 
ceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, fool- 
ishness; all these evil things come from within, and 
defile the man" (Mark 7, 21-23). If "total depravity" 
means that there is nothing good in human nature, 
then Christ did not teach it ; but if it means that every 
faculty of human nature is desperately corrupted by 
the foul malady, then Christ did teach it over and 
over. And he put his Yea and Amen upon the awful 
penalties which are affixed to sin in even its lightest 
forms. The idle word must be accounted for (Matt. 
12, 36). The man who "offends" one of Christ's little 
ones is in such danger that "it were better for him that 
a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he 



44 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 

were drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matt. 18, 6). 
And he proceeds to say, with searching earnestness, 
"If thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, 
and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to 
enter into life halt or maimed, rather than, having 
two hands or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire. 
And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast 
it from thee ; it is better for thee to enter into life 
with one eye, rather than, having two eyes, to be cast 
into hell fire " (Matt. 18, 8, 9). 

But there is a distinctly optimistic tone in the teach- 
ing of Jesus. If he affirms that all alike are sinners, 
he states no less clearly that all are salvable. Man 
is "lost," indeed; yet not as a ship is lost upon the 
rocks, parting asunder in irremediable ruin : rather as 
a traveller is lost on the prairie, in the dark night, 
the snow drifting down and obscuring his path. O 
for a light somewhere in the distance! O for the 
sound of a friendly voice ! 

"The Son of Man is come," says Jesus, to answer 
that cry; "to seek and to save the lost" (Luke 19, 10). 
There must be a lingering remnant of good in sinful 
man, else why did Jesus come to save him? And 
how could he stand with outstretched arms, saying, 
"Come to me!" if there were nothing in the sinner 
to respond to that call? Christ was known as "the 
friend of sinners." He had a kind, encouraging word 
for a contrite woman of the town. The last act of 
his earthly career was to extend mercy to a penitent 
thief. His mercy had in it no countenance for sin. 
He did not obscure the fact that the prodigal wasting 
his substance in the far country deserved the shame 
and adversity which had befallen him. But his teach- 



HIS DOCTRINE OF MAN. 45 

ing was full of hopefulness. The door of the Father's 
house was ever open to the returning prodigal. To 
this end he himself had gone out upon the dark 
mountains of sin to bring the wanderer home to God. 
"The Son of Man is come not to be ministered unto," 
he said, "but to minister, and to give his life a ransom 
for many" (Matt. 20, 28). We are much concerned, 
just now, for one of our missionaries who has been 
captured by brigands and carried away into the fast- 
nesses of Bulgaria. A great ransom is demanded for 
her release. The soul of man is fallen likewise into 
the hands of the spoiler ; and Christ is come to pay the 
ransom. The ransom demanded is his life. He dies 
for us; and his death makes it possible for every sin- 
ner to go forth if he will out of captivity into the 
glorious liberty of the children of God. 

The Third Chapter in the Anthropology of Jesus 
has reference to Regeneration or the Recovery of Man. 
At the threshold of his ministry he said to Nicodemus, 
in terms of immeasurable significance, "Verily, verily, 
I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he can- 
not see the kingdom of God " (John 3, 3). It is not 
our purpose here to enter deeply into this doctrine 
of the New Birth; let it suffice that it means the 
restoration of human nature, in a complete and ulti- 
mate deliverance from the bondage of sin. 

This is set forth in Christ's teachings as entirely the 
work of God. For when Nicodemus asked in be- 
wilderment, "How can a man be born when he is 
old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's 
womb, and be born?" Jesus answered, "That which 
is born of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is born of 
the Spirit is spirit" (John 3, 4-6). In other words, any 



46 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 

attempt at self -reformation is doomed to end in fail- 
ure, since it effects no radical change in the moral 
constitution. God alone can restore the utterly demor- 
alized faculties of our spiritual nature. 

Let it not be supposed, however, that there is 
nothing for man to do in this situation. His part 
is acquiescence. Our Lord in his teaching ever pays 
deference to the sovereignty of man. He recognizes 
the fact that a sinner, by virtue of his likeness to 
the sovereign God, may do as he will, despite all over- 
tures of the divine mercy. What pathos in these 
words, "Ye will not come unto me that ye might have 
life ! " (John 5, 40). Was ever the Freedom of the 
Will set forth in more conclusive terms than when 
Jesus lamented with tears, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 
how often would I have gathered thy children to- 
gether, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her 
wings, and ye would not!" (Matt. 23, 37). The very 
utterance of a call to salvation was proof positive 
that men had power to refuse it. 

" Though God be good, and free be heaven, 

No force divine can love compel ; 
And though the song of sins forgiven 

Shall sound through lowest hell, 
The sweet persuasion of His voice 

Respects thy sanctity of will. 
He giveth day ; thou hast thy choice, 

To walk in darkness still." 

Wherefore he said, "He that believeth on the Son 
hath everlasting life; but he that believeth not, the 
wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3, 36). He 
comes to save. He stretches out his arms to sinners, 
even to the uttermost, saying, "Him that cometh unto 



HIS DOCTRINE OF MAN. 47 

me, I will in no wise cast out" (John 6, 37). But 
whether we will come, whether we will believe, whether 
we will be saved or not, this is for us to say. 

The Fourth and final Chapter of Christ's teaching 
in this province has to do with the Destiny of Man, 
He who meets the condition affixed to the benefits of 
the gospel, to wit, an acceptance of Christ as Saviour 
and Lord, is restored to his original estate — and more. 

To begin with, he enters into Life; that is, the 
higher life of the soul, which in the teaching of Jesus 
is clearly distinguished from the lower or sensual 
life. The difference is indicated where he says, "Take 
no thought for your life; what ye shall eat, or what 
ye shall drink ,, (Matt. 6, 25). And again, "A man's 
life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which 
he possesseth" (Luke 12, 15). And again, "What 
shall a man be profited if he shall gain the whole world 
and forfeit his life? or what shall a man give in ex- 
change for his life?" (Matt. 16, 26, R. V.). He is here 
speaking of that which differentiates man from all 
the lower orders; that is, the life which he lives in 
communion and sympathy with God. 

Furthermore, the penitent and believing sinner is 
restored to his place in the Household of God. It is 
written of Christ, "He came unto his own, and his 
own received him not; but to as many received him, 
to them gave he power to become the sons of God" 
(John 1, 11, 12). Now a man, however fallen, never 
loses his natural sonship : in his wicked life in the far 
country he renounces the Father, but he is never cast 
off. On his return, however, he becomes as the Bud- 
dhists would say, "a twice-born man." He is thence- 
forth not only a son by creation but, what is of far 



48 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 

greater significance, a son by adoption: as Paul says 
in his formulation of this doctrine, "For ye have not 
received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye 
have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, 
Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with 
our spirit, that we are the children of God " (Ro. 
8, 15, 16). 

Still further, the sinner redeemed by grace is pro- 
moted to service in the kingdom of God. This is the 
reference in Jesus' words, "As the father hath sent 
me into the world, so send I you." He had been sent 
into the world to save it. He calls his disciples in like 
manner to be "fishers of men." He bids them enter 
the harvest field that, as laborers together with him, 
they may reap souls for the garners of God. 

And the consummation of their high estate is par- 
ticipation in Christ's own glory. In his sacerdotal 
intercession he says, "Father, I pray for them. I 
will (was ever a prayer offered by another in such im- 
perative terms?) that they may behold my glory, 
which thou hast given me ; and the glory which thou 
gavest me, I have given them " (John 17, 22-24). 
Here is the ultimate climax in the Ascent of Man. 
"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have 
entered into the heart of man, the things which God 
hath prepared for them that love him." 

Here ends the teaching of Jesus with respect to 
man. It leaves us gazing in at the doorway of the 
Father's house. The son, who went into the far 
country, has come to himself and returned, and he 
has found the door open to receive him. Here he 
sits, amid sounds of music and dancing, at a bounti- 
fully provided table. He has regained his justly for- 



HIS DOCTRINE OF MAN. 49 

feited place in the family circle. The best robe is 
upon him; he has shoes on his feet and a signet ring 
on his hand. And thus there is joy in the presence of 
the angels of God over every sinner that returneth 
from the error of his way. 

One thing remains to be said : The best revelation 
of man is found, after all, not in the teachings of 
Jesus, but in himself. He is entitled to be called "the 
Son of man " because of his preeminence as the First- 
born among many brethren: the approval of the 
Father is upon him as upon no other, "This is My 
Beloved Son." In him humanity is at its best. Ecce 
Homo! He came into the world to die for our salva- 
tion, but he came also to live among us, in order that 
we might know what character is and what manhood 
ought to be. The initial step in the return of a wander- 
ing soul is to come to him for the cleansing of his 
blood, that the past may be blotted out; and the re- 
mainder of life, along the upward path to the fulness 
of the stature of character, is to follow in his steps. 
Thus "let us run with patience the race that is set 
before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher 
of our faith; who, for the joy that was set before him, 
endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set 
down at the right hand of the throne of God." 



IV 



HIS DOCTRINE OF HIMSELF THE 
GOD-MAN 



IV 



HIS DOCTRINE OF HIMSELF THE 
GOD-MAN 

An ancient proverb says, "The secret of man is 
the secret of Messiah" ; which means, I suppose, that 
the coming of Messiah was expected to solve all the 
great problems of life and destiny. The hope of his 
coming was universal. It was called "the Hope of 
Israel", but it was cherished the world over. All 
men knew as by intuition, that they were born of 
God: they knew also, by the testimony of their eyes 
and conscience, that a great gulf had somehow been 
opened up between the great Father and his children: 
and the conclusion was inevitable that, if there was a 
heart in the bosom of God, he would not leave his 
children under the curse, but must, in some way, bridge 
the awful gulf. The suggestion of such a bridge, 
wherever or in whatever form it occurred, was an 
essential thought of Christ. It may be dimly seen 
in the legend of Thor; in the wounded foot of 
Brahma treading on the serpent's head; in 
the fable of Prometheus, bound to the Caucasus with 
a vulture gnawing at his vitals, lamenting, "I must 
endure this until one of the gods shall bear it for 
me." It is shadowed forth in all Avatars and Theoph- 
anies, and preeminently in the universal institution of 
sacrifice. It was hinted at in the Sibylline books 

(so 



52 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 

and seemed to find an echo in Virgil's Fourth Eclogue, 
"A golden Progeny from heaven descends." At the 
beginning of the Christian era the world was on tip- 
toe, expectant, watching the stars. He was coming! 
Coming! The Christ; the builder of waste places; 
the restorer of paths to dwell in! 

By the well-side at Sychar sat the Man of Naz- 
areth, in conversation with a woman of the town. 
Her heart had bared itself before his calm scrutiny 
and her soul was perplexed by the great problems of 
the soul's life. With a sigh she said, "I know that 
Messias cometh, which is called the Christ; when 
he is come, he will tell us all things :" to which Jesus 
replied, "I that speak unto thee am he!" 

This, in specific terms, is the Messianic claim of 
Jesus. In many ways, on different occasions, to va- 
rious groups of hearers he expressed himself to the 
same effect; and his language was such as to leave 
no possibility of doubt. He professed to be the 
Christ, the long- looked -for Messiah "whom kings and 
prophets longed to see and died without the sight." 
It is of supreme importance that we should under- 
stand this claim, inasmuch as the issues of life and 
death flow out of it. 

4 'We walk at high noon, and the bells 
Call to a thousand oracles ; 
But the sound deafens, and the light 
Is stronger than our dazzled sight ; 
The letters of the sacred Book 
Glimmer and swim beneath our look ; 
Still struggles in the Age's breast 
With deepening agony of quest 
The old entreaty : 'Art thou he, 
Or look we for the Christ to be ? ■ " 



HIS DOCTRINE OF HIMSELF. 53 

Of the Messianic titles used in old-time prophecy 
there are three which have surpassing importance. 
These are "Son of man/' "Son of God," and "Christ," 
that is, the Anointed One. It is my present pur- 
pose to show that our Lord assumed these titles, with 
the honors and prerogatives attending upon them, in 
such manner that no thoughtful man can deny his 
claim to Messiahship without impugning his char- 
acter as an honest man. 

I. Son of man. This term is used in a double 
sense. On the one hand it designates a son of man; 
that is, one who shares humanity with us; one who 
eats, sleeps, suffers and dies as we do (Luke 9, 58; 
Mark 8,31). Now this is involved in our Lord's 
claim to Messiahship. He is a man among men; 
our fellow ; flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone ; 
in all points such as we are, only without sin. 

If it be suggested that this fact was so obvious as 
to need no statement, the answer is found in such 
heresies as that of the Docetists, who argued that 
Jesus was not a veritable man, but God manifesting 
himself in spectral form. 

It should be remembered, in this connection, that 
the world before Christ was not a world with- 
out God. God appeared among men and held con- 
verse with them on many occasions, but never as 
incarnate God. These appearances, prior to the 
Advent, were Theophanies. He is thus represented 
as walking with Adam in the garden in the cool of 
the day: as speaking with Abraham at noon in the 
doorway of his tent, and to Daniel at the hour of 
the evening sacrifice. As the "Angel of the Cove 
nant," he communicated with the children of Israel 



54 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 

from above the golden cover of the Ark, and went 
before them on their wilderness journey in a pillar 
of cloud by day and of fire by night. 

But it was prophesied that in the fulness of time 
he should take our humanity upon him; "A virgin 
shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name 
Immanuel"; that is, God with us (Isa. 7, 14). Here 
is the mystery of the Incarnation ; and this is involved 
in our Lord's claim to the Messianic title, "Son of 
man." He affirms himself to be that "Word" which 
was in the beginning with God and in due time was 
made flesh and dwelt among us. 

But there is another sense in which, by assuming 
this title, our Lord sets himself apart from other men. 
He is the Son of man; that is, the One who was to 
appear in human form to deliver the world from sin. 
No sooner had Adam fallen than the protevangel was 
uttered: "The seed of woman shall bruise the ser- 
pent's head." Our Lord now claims to be that "seed 
of woman" who was to deliver the race from moral 
bondage and set up on earth the kingdom of God. 
Of the frequent references in prophecy to this 
Son of man it will suffice to mention that in the 
vision of Daniel: "Behold the four winds of the 
heaven strove upon the great sea; and four great 
beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from an- 
other. The first was like a lion; the second like a 
bear; the third like a leopard; the fourth a nonde- 
script beast, with iron teeth." These were the simili- 
tudes of the four great powers of the ancient world 
which rose, flourished and disappeared. Then was 
another throne set up and one like unto the Son of 
man came with the clouds of heaven and took his 



HIS DOCTRINE OF HIMSELF. 55 

place Upon it, of whom it is written, "His dominion is 
an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom that which 
shall not be destroyed" (Dan. 7, 1-14). 

The fact that Jesus claimed authority as the Son 
of man is indisputable. Not less than forty-six times 
in the Gospels is this title used with reference to 
him. Once, when certain Greeks came to Jerusalem, 
saying, "We would see Jesus," he kept them waiting 
without while he uttered these significant words: 
"The hour is come that the Son of man should be 
glorified. Now is my soul troubled; and what shall 
I say? Father, save me from this hour? But for 
this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify 
thy name! Now is the judgment of this world: now 
shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if 
I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto 
me." The people answered him, "We have heard 
out of the law that Christ abideth for ever: and 
how sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted 
up? Who is this Son of man?" Then Jesus said, 
Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while 
ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you" (John 
12, 20-36). 

II. Son of God. This title, whose Messianic ref- 
erence is conceded on all sides, is also employed in a 
double sense. It is sometimes used of angels, as in 
the passage, "The morning stars sang together and 
all the sons of God shouted for joy." And frequently 
it is used of good men, as where it is written, "Now 
are we sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what 
we shall be." Thus all who are in close and ap- 
proved relations with the Father, either because they 
have never sinned or because their sins are forgiven, 



56 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 

may be called "sons of God." Of Jesus this was 
singularly true, since he was "holy, harmless and un- 
defiled." He kept unimpaired the divine quality of 
his manhood, so that alone of mortal men, he could 
utter the challenge, "Which of you convinceth me of 
sin?" As a Son of God he was thus the representa- 
tive man; he was the exemplar of life and charac- 
ter for all other men ; he was the ideal man. 

In its other sense the title refers to Messiah as the 
sole and singular Son of God: in other words, his 
"only-begotten Son." He is thus represented in the 
Second Psalm, where God reads the riot -act to kings 
and rulers who have conspired against him. A burst 
of laughter is heard out of heaven and God speaks in 
his sore displeasure, — "I will declare the decree: 
The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this 
day have I begotten thee: Ask of me, and I shall 
give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the 
uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Be 
wise now, therefore, O ye kings. Kiss the Son, lest 
he be angry, and ye perish from the way. Blessed are 
all they that put their trust in him." 

It should be observed that, while Jesus makes fre- 
quent reference to the Fatherhood of God, he never 
fails to preserve the distinction between his own filial 
relation and that of other men. He speaks of "My 
Father" and "Your Father," but never of "Our 
Father" in such manner as to suggest that his Son- 
ship is like ours. Our sonship is by creation in the 
divine likeness ; and again by adoption whereby we 
are enabled to say, "Abba, Father;" but his Sonship 
is from an eternal begetting. God has many sons, 
but one "Only-begotten." And this is the honor to 



HIS DOCTRINE OF HIMSELF. 57 ■ 

which our Lord repeatedly lays claim, as making him 
coequal with God. It is implied in all references 
to his preexistence ; as, "Before Abraham was I am" 
(John 8, 58; also 16, 28) ; to his being sent into the 
world (such as John 3, 16) ; and to his singular inti- 
macy with the Father (such as John 8, 29). 

At the baptism of Jesus and again in the Mount 
of Transfiguration a voice was heard from heaven, 
saying, "This is my beloved Son; hear ye him!" 
The claim of Jesus to this filial title was recognized by 
the tempter in the wilderness when he said, "If thou 
be the Son of God, command that these stones be 
made bread" (Matt. 4, 3) ; and by evil spirits, when 
they cried, "What have we to do with thee, thou Son 
of the most high God" (Mark 5, 7)? It was rec- 
ognized also by the disciples of Jesus; as after the 
stilling of the tempest, when they said "Of a truth, 
thou art the Son of God" (Mat. 14, 33) and in the 
good confession of Peter, "Thou art the Christ, the 
Son of the living God (Matt. 16, 16). It was rec- 
ognized by his murderers who derided him, saying, 
"If thou be the Son of God, come down from the 
cross" (Luke 23, 35). It was acknowledged by the 
soldier in charge of his execution, who, witnessing his 
calm demeanor in the presence of death, was moved 
to say, "Verily, this was a righteous man" ; and, later, 
"Verily, this was the Son of God!" 

III. Christ, the Anointed One. This is the offi- 
cial title of Messiah and, as such, Jesus appropriated 
it (e. g. Mark 9, 41 ; John 4, 26). In this title are 
included both Son of Man and Son of God. In the 
person of Christ the two natures are knit together in 
mystical union. His personality is unique. In all 



58 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 

the universe there is not another Theanthropos. He 
stands solitary and alone as the God-man. 

Great is the mystery of godliness, God is manifested 
in the flesh! The mysteriousness of this manifesta- 
tion is granted; but this furnishes no adequate rea- 
son for denying the fact. We dwell in the midst of 
.mysteries. Who shall explain the union of the soul 
and body in the human constitution? Two indis- 
putable facts are here united into an inexplicable ter- 
tium quid. How is it that my hand moves at the 
command of my will? This is quite as mysterious 
as the union of Godhood and manhood in the person 
of Christ. A thing may be suprarational yet not 
contrarational ; indeed most things are so. The rea- 
son why the Incarnation is objected to is because it 
finds no analogy in nature; and this is no reason 
at all. 

"I do not think of Christ," said Chrysostom, "as 
God alone or man alone, but both together. For I 
know he was hungry, and I know that with five loaves 
he fed five thousand. I know he was thirsty; and 
I know that he turned water into wine. I know he 
was carried in a ship; and I know he walked upon 
the sea. I know he died; and I know that he raised 
the dead. I know he was set before Pilate; and I 
know he sits with the Father in his throne. I know 
he was worshipped by the angels; and I know that 
he was stoned by the Jews. And truly some of these 
I ascribe to the human and others to the divine nature. 
For by reason of this he is said to have been both 
God and man." 

And this union of the divine and human in Christ 
is necessary to our salvation. The argument is set 



HIS DOCTRINE OF HIMSELF. 59 

forth in Anselm's Cur Deus Homo, in which he con- 
tends that Messiah must be man in order that he may- 
suffer; since God has neither body, parts nor pas- 
sions, and suffering alone can expiate sin; but he 
must also be God in order that he may suffer enough 
to atone for the entire race of sinful men. 

It had been prophesied that when Christ appeared 
it would be as the son of a virgin, who should be 
called Immanuel, which being interpreted is, God 
with us. Let such an one be found and he shall be 
counted worthy to accomplish the great salvation. 
But where is he? To this inquiry Jesus of Nazareth 
answers, "I that speak unto thee am he." As The- 
anthropos he binds earth and heaven together, like 
Jacob's ladder, with its lowest round on the earth and 
its highest round in heaven. This was the reference 
in Jesus words, "Hereafter ye shall see heaven 
opened and the angels of God ascending and descend- 
ing on the Son of man" (John 1, 51). As The- 
anthropos he is competent to be a mediator between 
God and man, with one of his pierced hands uplifted 
to God in intercessory prayer, and the other ex- 
tended in invitation to sinful men. It is thus that 
the race is reconciled with God. 

As to his own claim in these premises, there is no 
room for question. On one occasion the Jews said, 
"How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou 
be the Christ, tell us plainly." And Jesus answered, 
"I told you, and ye believed not; the works that I 
do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me" 
(John 10, 24, 25). He says he had already "told" 
them, as if it were his common, frequent claim. And 
again, at the close of his ministry^ the High Priest 



6o THE WONDERFUL TEACHER. 

before whom he stood on trial for his life, said to 
him, "I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell 
us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. And 
Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said; nevertheless, 
I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of 
man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming 
in the clouds of heaven." That he intended this to 
be the strongest possible affirmation is evident from 
what follows : "Then the high priest rent his clothes, 
saying, he hath spoken blasphemy ; what further need 
have we of witnesses? What think ye? They an- 
swered and said, "He is guilty of death" (Matt. 26, 
63-66). It was this claim to Messiahship that brought 
about his death. There were other charges in the 
indictment against him, but he died for "making him- 
self equal with God." 

The problem is before us: What think ye of this 
Jesus which is called the Christ? Of all living men 
there is not one so thoroughly alive as he. Of all 
notable figures in history there is not one so conspic- 
uous and omnipresent as he. "Say not, Who shall 
ascend into heaven; that is to bring Christ down? 
Or, Who shall descend into the deep ; that is, to bring 
up Christ again?" For he is ever near. He arrests 
us in the midst of our busy cares to propound the 
question, What thinkest thou of me? We awake in 
the watches of the night to find him asking, "What 
sayest thou of me?" Alas, we often fail to recog- 
nize him or, recognizing, deny his claims upon us. 
We turn at his voice, like Magdalene, saying to our- 
selves, "It is the gardener." O, blessed the hour 
when he calls us by name, and we fall before him, 
crying, "Rabboni! My Master!" More blessed still 



HIS DOCTRINE OF HIMSELF. 61 

the hour when, touching the nail-prints in his hands, 
we bid farewell to every doubt, crying, "My Lord and 
My God!" 



I 



THE KINGDOM AND ITS FACTORS 



THE KINGDOM 



THE KINGDOM 

The Jews believed in God as King over all and 
blessed forever. He had set them apart in a theoc- 
racy or God's-government, in which the divine word 
was ultimate Law. It was their expectation that, 
in the fulness of time, a Kingdom was to be estab- 
lished on earth, of which the Messiah, a lineal 
descendant of David, would be absolute sovereign, 
his dominion reaching "from sea to sea and from the 
river unto the ends of the earth/' 

This was the Hope of Israel, which ran through 
prophecy like a golden thread. It sustained the hearts 
of the Chosen People during their national decadence 
and the weary years of the Babylonish woe. One of 
their seers, in captivity, beheld the triumph of the 
Messianic Kingdom in a vision of a great image with 
head of gold, breast of silver, body of brass, legs of 
iron, and feet of iron and clay. And, behold, a stone 
was cut out of the mountain, without hands, and it 
smote the feet of the image and brake them in pieces, 
and crushed the image that it became as the chaff of 
the threshing floor; and the wind carried it away. 
And the stone became a great mountain and filled the 
earth (Dan. 2, 31-44). 

It was not unnatural that the Jews should associate 
with this vision of Messianic power the restoration 
of political glory. They saw afar the waving of 

(65) 



66 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

banners and the splendor of a golden throne. The 
yoke of the oppressor was to be broken. There would 
be no more wars or rumors of wars. The Gentiles 
were to be effectually subjugated and trodden under 
foot. And the sway of Jehovah was to be over all 
nations, insomuch that Holiness should be written on 
the very bridles of the horses. Then every man in 
Israel would rest under his own vine and fig-tree. 

But the years dragged their slow length along, and 
still Messiah came not. The lights went out in the 
sanctuary; there was no more open vision. The 
nation was like a sick man tossing in the night. How 
long, O Lord ? how long ? Come and make no tarry- 
ing! 

At length a voice was heard, the voice of one 
crying in the wilderness, "Repent ye ; for the kingdom 
of heaven is at hand! There cometh one mightier 
than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am 
not worthy to stoop down and unloose. Prepare ye 
the way of the Lord ; make his paths straight ! Every 
valley shall be filled, and every mountain shall be 
brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight 
and the rough ways shall be made smooth; and all 
flesh shall see the salvation of God!" The heights 
of Jordan echoed the words of the weird prophet; 
the people thronged in multitudes to hear him. 

And presently the King appeared, walking by the 
river-side. And John said, "Behold him! This is 
he of whom I said, After me cometh a man who is 
preferred before me, for he was before me." The 
people turned and saw a plain man in homespun. Was 
it strange that they hesitated to receive him? Here 
was no glittering crown, no waving banner, no 



THE KINGDOM 67 

trumpet's blare. For thus it had been written, "Who 
hath believed our report, and to whom is the Arm of 
the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him 
as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. 
He hath no form nor comeliness ; and when we shall 
see him there is no beauty that we should desire him. 
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, 
and acquainted with grief : and we hid as it were our 
faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed 
him not" (Isa. 53, 1-3). 

At this point we note the Beginnings of the King- 
dom. For the Christ, whose public appearance was 
so sudden and singular, at once addressed himself to 
the business in hand/ beginning to mount the stairway 
to his throne. 

At his baptism he received his credentials from on 
high; a voice from heaven bearing witness to his 
birthright, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom 
I am well pleased" (Matt. 3, 13-17). 

The temptation in the wilderness was his initiation 
into the Messianic office. He passed through a fiery 
ordeal of forty days ; the culmination being reached 
when Satan, directing his thought to the kingdoms 
of this world said, "All these will I give thee, if thou 
wilt fall down and worship me." We cannot appreci- 
ate the severity of this temptation. The Prince of 
this world proposed to abdicate in favor of the Christ 
on one simple condition; but that condition was im- 
possible. Not so must Messiah come to his throne. 
"Get thee behind me, Satan! My way is the royal 
way of the cross. I, if I be lifted up, will draw all 
men unto me" (Matt. 4, 1-11; John 12, 32). 

The Sermon on the Mount was the inaugural of the 



68 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

King, in which he laid down the fundamental facts 
and principles of his government, which, though an 
absolute sovereignty, is also, as interpreted by this 
Magna Charta, rightly called "The Commonwealth 
of God" (Matt, chapters 5-7). 

Thenceforth the King went up and down "teach- 
ing and preaching the gospel of the Kingdom." This 
gives the key-note to his ministry. It designates his 
purpose in coming into the world ; namely, to destroy 
the works of the devil, ransom the enslaved race and 
restore it to the benignant sway of truth and righteous- 
ness. To the multitudes who thronged to hear him 
he said, "The kingdom of God is preached and every 
man presseth into it" (Luke 16, 16). Not Jews alone, 
but Gentiles ; not the righteous only, but publicans and 
sinners found an open door. Whosoever would might 
enter in. 

Let it be observed how great a portion of our Lord's 
teaching has to do with the Qualifications for Citizen- 
ship in this kingdom of God. The prime condition 
is indicated in his conversation with Nicodemus, 
"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born 
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3, 3). 
This Kingdom, he elsewhere says, "is within you" 
(Luke 17, 21). That is, it begins in a revolution in 
the individual soul. By nature all are aliens from 
the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the 
covenant of promise; how then shall they become 
fellow-citizens with the saints and members of the 
household of God? A radical change must mani- 
festly be wrought in the very life-principle of the soul. 
And this can be accomplished only by an intervention 
of divine power (John 3, 4-8). 



THE KINGDOM 69 

But there is something for the sinner himself to do. 
He must repent, believe and be baptized. (1) Re- 
pentance is renunciation of sin. It is casting off 
allegiance to the Prince of Darkness as preliminary to 
naturalization in the kingdom of God. For in this 
Kingdom there is no room for sin. (2) Belief is, in 
simplest terms, an acceptance of Christ. What we 
call "saving faith" is more than an intellectual assent 
to doctrinal or ethical symbols; it is a vital "coupler" 
between the soul and the sovereign Son of God. 
(3) And baptism is an open avowal of Christ. Up 
with your colors ! On with your uniform ! "For 
whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words, of 
him shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he Com- 
eth in his glory" (Luke 9, 26). 

Our Lord has much, also, to say concerning the 
Responsibilities of Citizenship in this kingdom of 
God. In brief, these are loyalty, filial obedience and 
ministry. Our first Christian duty is loyalty to the 
King. He must be Alpha and Omega to those who 
follow him. On a certain occasion three applicants 
presented themselves to Jesus. One said, "Lord, I 
will follow thee whithersoever thou goest" ; and Jesus 
answered, "Foxes have holes, and the birds of the 
air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where 
to lay his head." Another said, "Lord, I will follow 
thee; but suffer me first to go and bury my father"; 
to whom he replied, "Let the dead bury their dead ; 
but go thou and preach the kingdom of God." The 
last said, "Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first 
go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house" ; 
and Jesus answered, "No man having put his hand to 
the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom 



7o THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

of God" (Luke 9, 57-62). This means, if it means 
anything, that Immanuel shares not his sovereignty 
in the soul. He must be first, last, midst and all in 
all. 

The next requirement is filial obedience. We cannot 
emphasize too deeply the fact that Jesus requires, on 
the part of his disciples, an absolute subjection to the 
Moral Law. It is true that his followers are not 
under law but under grace ; this does not mean, how- 
ever, that the sanctions of morality have been weak- 
ened in anywise, but that obedience is raised from the 
low level of duty to the higher level of filial love. We 
are no longer children of the bondwoman but of the 
free. We serve not as galley slaves chained to the 
oar, but as children of God. Our Lord, more than 
any other teacher that ever lived, placed emphasis on 
the sanctity and inviolability of the Moral Law, inso- 
much that not one jot or tittle of it could be disan- 
nulled ; but the mere form of obedience goes for naught 
(Matt. 21, 31). He who loves will obey for the joy of 
obeying. It is enough that the Father asks it. "Not every 
one that saith, 'Lord ! Lord !' shall enter into the king- 
dom, but he that doeth the will of my Father" (Matt. 

7>3i). 

Then follows the obligation of service, or ministry. 
Once and again the question arose among the dis- 
ciples, "Who shall be greatest in the kingdom of 
God?" And Jesus said, "Ye know that the princes 
of the Gentiles exercise dominion, but it shall not be 
so among you; whosoever will be great among you, 
let him be your minister ; and whosoever will be chief 
among you, let him be your servant: even as the 
Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to 



THE KINGDOM 71 

minister" (Matt. 20, 20-28). This is the business 
of the Kingdom. It was taught by our Lord with 
splendid significance when, in his last interview with 
his disciples, he girded himself with a towel and 
washed their feet, saying, "Ye call me Master and 
Lord ; and ye say well ; for so I am. If I then, your 
Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also 
ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given 
you an example, that ye should do as I have done to 
you" (John 13, 1-17). 

We turn now to the teachings of Jesus as to the 
Privileges of Citizenship in the Kingdom of God. The 
service is indeed its own reward. It is enough to 
be permitted to follow the King. This is that pearl 
of great price which, when a man hath found, he doeth 
well to sell all his property that he may buy it (Matt. 
13, 45-46). This is that treasure hid in a field, the 
which, when a man hath found, for joy thereof, he 
goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth it (Matt. 
13, 44). Our Lord said of John the Baptist, who 
belonged to the old economy as last of the prophetic 
line, "Among them that are born of women there hath 
not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwith- 
standing, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is 
greater than he" (Matt. 11, 11). The sense of right 
doing, the privilege of sitting at the King's table, his 
word of commendation, "Well done !" these, were there 
no heaven, would be sufficient compensation for those 
who have left all to follow him. 

But there is something beyond. It is true, we enter 
into the Kingdom here and now ; but a great surprise 
awaits us. The joys of this present time are but fore- 
tastes of that which is to come. We have here only 



72 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

the reversion of our estate. One of these days the 
King shall say unto those upon his right hand, "Come, 
ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom pre- 
pared for you from the foundation of the world" 
(Matt. 25, 34). Then as heirs of the promises we 
shall come into full enjoyment of our royal rights. 
This is that fulness of spiritual life to which Paul 
referred when, a prisoner, listening for the footfall 
of his executioner, he said, "I am now ready to be 
offered and the time of my departure is at hand; I 
have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, 
I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up 
for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the 
righteous Judge shall give me at that day." 

It remains to inquire what Jesus taught as to the 
Outlook of the Kingdom. His constant assertion 
was that it should abide forever. Yet not as an iso- 
lated demesne, like Israel, in some far corner of the 
earth. The law of the Kingdom is that of organic 
growth; as it had been prophesied, "Of the increase 
of his government there shall be no end." Its out- 
ward extension is set forth in the parable of the 
Mustard Seed, "which is indeed the least of all seeds ; 
but when it is grown, it becometh a tree so that the 
birds of the air come and lodge in the branches of 
it" (Matt. 13, 31, 32). Its inward extension, or 
intensiveness, is set forth in the parable of the Leaven, 
"which a woman took and hid in three measures of 
meal until the whole was leavened" (Matt. 13, 33). 
The Kingdom groweth as a mighty harvest, whose 
garnering is sure. Let us not be impatient ; the wheat 
and the tares must grow together, but the reapers shall 
separate them (Matt. 13, 24-30). The invitations to 



THE KINGDOM 73 

the great supper of the King's Son have gone forth 
into all the world and, whoever may refuse, the 
wedding shall finally be furnished with guests (Matt. 
22, 1-11). 

All history verifies the prophecy of the ultimate 
triumph of the King. The hands on heaven's dial 
move not backward. Each passing day the rolling 
world moves further into the light. The most impos- 
ing figure in history is that of Immanuel riding down 
through the centuries. He set forth at the beginning 
with a paltry retinue of eleven men. The fires of 
persecution were kindled in vain. At the end of the 
First Century five hundred thousand rallied at the 
call. Fiercer and hotter grew the fires. The kings 
of the earth took counsel against him, saying, "Let us 
break his bands asunder and cast away his cords from 
us I" He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The 
Tenth Century closed; and there were fifty millions 
following the King. Then fell the shadows of the 
Dark Ages. It seemed as if faith had perished from 
the earth. The Church fought for an empty sepulchre, 
or busied itself in illuminating Missals and Breviaries, 
while the world was dying in sin. But at the close 
of the Fifteenth Century the darkness lifted and, lo! 
there were a hundred millions who proclaimed their 
loyalty to Christ. Then came the historic epoch of 
infidelity, moving on to a horrid climax in the vapor- 
ings of the Encyclopedia and the Reign of Terror, 
when Thomas Paine put forth his "Age of Reason" 
and Voltaire said, "I will go through Christ's forest 
and girdle every tree until not a sapling shall remain 
to him. ,, Nevertheless at the close of the Eighteenth 
Century there were two hundred million followers of 



74 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

Christ. Then the Missionary Epoch. How beautiful 
upon the mountains have been the feet of those who 
have preached good tidings, saying unto Zion, Thy 
God reigneth! The Nineteenth Century has closed; 
and there are five hundred millions of people who 
acknowledge the supremacy of Christ! And still the 
royal standards onward go. 

Is the ultimate triumph near at hand, then? God 
knows. On the day of Christ's ascension his disciples 
asked, "Wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom 
to Israel ?" And he answered, "It is not for you to 
know the times nor the seasons; but ye shall receive 
power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and 
ye shall be witnesses unto me" (Acts I, 6-8). The 
kingdom of God cometh not with observation. "If 
any man shall say, Lo here or Lo there, believe 
him not." 

Our duty is plain. We are to be hopeful ; for in due 
time he that shall come will come and will make no 
tarrying. We are to be faithful; as it is written, 
"Seek ye first the kingdom of God." And we are to 
be watchful; for in an hour when we think not the 
heavens will part asunder and the Son of man shall 
come to reign. 

Of old he came as a little child; and there were 
none to welcome him save a few shepherds, gazing 
devoutly down into his face. When he comes again 
it will be in glory unspeakable; and every knee shall 
bow before him. The earth will send up acclamations 
to meet the songs of heaven: "Alleluia! The Lord 
God omnipotent reigneth !" And the kingdom of this 
world shall have become the kingdom of our Lord 
and of his Christ. Roll swifter round, ye wheels of 
time, and bring the welcome day ! 



VI 
THE CHURCH 



VI 



THE CHURCH 

The Church, as set forth in the teaching Of Jesus, 
is not identified with the Kingdom, though there is a 
vital relation between them. No doubt there are 
names on the roster of the Church, which are not 
written in the Lamb's book of life; and vice versa. 
But the Church, however imperfect it may be, is the 
prime factor in the solution of the Problem of the 
Kingdom. It is the great organism through which 
God is working, by the power of his Spirit, for the; 
casting down of the strongholds of iniquity and the 
establishment of truth and righteousness on earth. 
As such, it is entitled to the affectionate regard and 
cooperation of all who profess to follow Christ. 

If the Church has not been ideally efficient in her 
work of social regeneration all along the centuries, it 
may be asserted, without fear of contradiction, that 
even in her feeblest moods she has shown more power 
in her little finger than all other organizations in their 
loins. She is not what she should be but by the 
grace of God she is what she is. 

The Church is mentioned by name only twice in 
the teaching of Jesus: in Matt. 16, 17-19, "And Jesus 
answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon, 
Bar-jona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto 
thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say 

(77) 



78 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock 
I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not 
prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys 
of the kingdom of heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt 
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatso- 
ever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in 
heaven." And again in Matt. 18, 15-18, where pro- 
vision is made for discipline: "Moreover if thy 
brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell 
him his fault between thee and him alone: if he 
shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 
But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee 
one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three 
witnesses every word may be established. And if 
he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: 
but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto 
thee as a heathen man and a publican. Verily I say 
unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be 
bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on 
earth shall be loosed in heaven." 

But the fact that the name Ecclesia occurs only in 
these passages is of slight significance. The Incarna- 
tion and the Atonement, the two fundamental doc- 
trines of the Christian system, are not named by 
Christ at all, though they run through his teachings 
like a twisted cord. In like manner he has much to 
say about the Church by implication. He clearly 
draws the silhouette; leaving his apostles to fill in the 
detail, under the inspiration of the Spirit which he 
confers upon them. 

It will appear, however, that the two passages re- 
ferred to contain the sum and substance of the whole 
matter. Here is maltum in parvo as we shall see. 



THE CHURCH 79 

First : Christ stands voucher for the Church as his 
own. "On this rock will I build my church/' This 
should be a sufficient answer to those who speak of 
the Church as a human institution. Our Lord owns, 
approves and champions it. Elsewhere to the same 
effect, the Church is set forth as his bride (Rev. 19, 
6-8): and again as his household (Eph. 2, 19): 
and again as his body. "He is head over all things 
to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him 
that filleth all in all " (Eph. 1, 23). 

Second: The Church is characterized as a Build- 
ing. "On this rock will I build my church. " This 
should be observed by those who say that our Lord 
"took no steps to organize his disciples into a formally 
constituted society/' It is insisted, on the contrary, 
that history has never shown an organization so 
ideally constituted. It was not thrown together at 
random, but put together by a divine Architect after 
a symmetrical plan. 

Third: The Corner-stone is Christ. "On this 
rock will I build my church." Long campaigns of 
controversy have been waged as to the meaning of 
those words. The question is, What is this rock? 
The Romanists say, "It is Peter"; but Christ did not 
say so. His statement was, "Thou art Petros, and on 
this petm I will build my church." The words are 
cognate but not identical ; the former is masculine and 
the latter feminine ; petra is a rock ; Petros is a stone 
hewn out of the rock. 

At the time when our Lord said this, he was 
pursuing his journey through Caesarea-Philippi, 
his face set steadfastly toward the cross. He 
greatly desired his disciples to be informed as to 



8o THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

his divine character and mission; but thus far they 
had not been able to bear it. He was now moved to 
enquire, "Who do men say that I am ?" To this they 
gave various answers. "But who say ye that I am?" 
Then Peter witnessed his good confession : "Thou art 
the Christ, the Son of the living God!" It was pur- 
suant to these words that Jesus said, "Blessed art 
thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not 
revealed this unto thee," and gave him his new name 
in recognition of his valorous words. His good con- 
fession, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living 
God," was, indeed, the mightiest of all truths, and 
worthy to be the foundation of the Church. 

Here is the seal of legitimacy among the various 
denominations of the Church ; that is, the headship of 
Christ as Son of the living God. The Romanists say, 
Ubi ekklesia, ibi Christos; or, "Where the Church is, 
there is Christ." But precisely the reverse is true; 
where Christ is, there is the Church. 

And here is the test of orthodoxy among members 
of the Church. Not that any truth is non-essential, 
nor that any habit of life is unimportant, but there is 
one thing alone which makes the branch a part of the 
living vine; that is, participation in its life. The sole 
condition of salvation is faith in Jesus Christ as Son 
of the living God : and it should be obvious that who- 
ever is saved is worthy of enrollment as a member of 
the Church. 

Here, also, is the bond of union among all the 
various denominations of the Church. These cannot 
be held together with clamps. The divisional lines 
are largely due to the social bias of our nature. We 
are made to segregate, as the sheep do, each finding 



THE CHURCH 81 

his place in a fellowship of kindred minds. Let the 
tribes of Israel carry their tribal banners aloft; what 
matters it, if only, on occasion, at the blast of the sil- 
ver trumpet, they march together under the banner of 
the Lion of the tribe of Judah against a common foe. 

Fourth : As to the Superstructure of the Church. 
It is a stone building. Here is the order: Christ, the 
corner-stone ; then the apostolic company as the foun- 
dation; then the ever-increasing multitude of believ- 
ers as stones in the wall. Thus Paul says, "Ye are 
built upon the foundation of the apostles and pro- 
phets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner- 
stone ; in whom all the building, fitly framed together, 
groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord" (Eph. 2, 
20, 21). 

The beginning was when our Lord gathered 
around him a little company of disciples in the upper 
room. In his sacerdotal prayer he said, "I pray for 
them : I pray not for the world, but for them which thou 
hast given me" (John 17, 9). Later, in the same 
prayer, he said, "Neither pray I for these alone, but 
for them also which shall believe on me through 
their word ; that they all may be one ; as thou, Father, 
art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in 
us : that the world may believe that thou hast sent me" 
(John 17, 20, 21). He was looking beyond the cross; 
he saw an innumerable procession passing down 
the ages, the multitude of the redeemed, who were 
given him by the Father as the fruit of the travail of 
his soul. 

Fifth: As to the Equipment of the Church. In 
order to the accomplishment of its great purpose, to 
wit, the setting up of the Kingdom, this building must 



82 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

be filled with vitalized machinery. To this end our 
Lord breathed on his disciples, saying, "Receive ye the 
Holy Ghost," and thereupon the Church became the 
antitype of Ezekiers vision of the wheels; wheels 
within wheels, wheels full of eyes; and within the 
wheels a Spirit; and whithersoever the Spirit was to 
go they went (Ez. i). 

Thus the Church was endowed with life. As 
Peter says, "Ye also as living stones are built together 
into a spiritual house" (i Pet. 2, 5). Wonderful 
stones; each with a throbbing heart; each, from its 
place in the wall, stretching out eager hands of help- 
fulness; each with a voice to sing, "Blest be the tie 
that binds our hearts in Christian love." 

Moreover the Church, under the power of the 
Spirit, becomes the depository of truth. It is called 
"the pillar and ground of truth" (1 Tim. 3, 15); 
which means that it is the source of authority as to 
the great verities of the eternal life. It is customary 
to speak of a three-fold authority in these premises; 
the inner consciousness, which may err, but never when 
controlled by the Spirit of God : the Church, which 
also may go wrong, but never when controlled by 
the Spirit of God; and the Scriptures, which are al- 
ways true and ultimate, though they also must be 
interpreted by the Spirit of God. It cannot be denied 
that our Lord did qualify the Church to teach with 
authority. He said, in bestowing the Spirit, "He 
will guide you into all truth" (John 16, 13). This 
cannot mean, for obvious reasons, that any body of 
believers is infallible, much less that any individual 
can claim infallibility as the vicar of God. It does 
mean, however, that the Church, taken as a whole and 



THE CHURCH 83 

in the broad sweep of the passing centuries, is so 
endowed with wisdom by the Spirit as to be the 
veritable pillar and ground of truth. 

Our Lord gives also, in this equipment of the 
Church, a peculiar power in prayer. The fervent 
effectual prayer of one righteous man availeth much; 
how much more the united prayers of the Church. 
Jesus said, "If two of you shall agree on earth as 
touching anything they shall ask, it shall be done for 
them of my Father which is in heaven; for where 
two or three are gathered together in my name, there 
am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18, 19). Here 
we have the charter of public worship. 

The Church is, still further, endued with power 
for service. Our Lord said to his disciples, "Tarry 
ye in Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from 
on high" (Luke 24, 49). And there they tarried 
until, on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit came upon 
them with "a sound as of a rushing mighty wind"; 
and, thus invigorated, they went forth to the con- 
quest of the world. The Church is impotent without 
this dynamic baptism. Its success through the cen- 
turies has ever been measured by its willingness to 
receive this unspeakable gift and, conscious of its 
own weakness, to lean hard on the Spirit of God. 

And one more item in the equipment of the 
Church is designated by our Lord as the power of 
"binding and loosing." This has reference to rules of 
order and discipline (Matt. 18, 15-18). The Jews had 
a proverb, "Shammai bindeth and Hillel looseth" ; which 
is to be interpreted by the historic difference of these 
teachers as to questions of order. Josephus says, "The 
Pharisees have power to bind and loose at will." We 



84 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

note an exercise of this authority by the apostles in 
the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15). A like authority 
in the matter of discipline was illustrated in the case 
of the offender at Corinth who was excommunicated 
to the end that he might be reclaimed (I. Cor. 5). 
This man was probably of good social position; and 
his offense was winked at ; but the Corinthian Church 
was induced to deal judicially with him. He was to 
be bound in order that he might be loosed. The prob- 
ability is that there should be a more frequent ex- 
ercise of this power in the church of to-day. 

The "power of the keys" was conferred upon 
Peter as a reward of his good confession (Matt. 16, 
19). The keys referred to were not those of the 
Celestial City. The picture of Peter sitting at its 
gate as a ticket-taker is a ludicrous perversion of the 
truth. There are no keys of heaven. Its twelve gates 
are never closed. The souls that wander in eternal 
darkness are free to enter if they will ; but, alas ! their 
characters are fixed and they cannot because they will 
not. As a reward for his loyalty to the fundamental 
doctrine of the lordship of Christ, Peter was com- 
missioned to throw open the doors of the visible 
church to the Gentiles. This was done on the day 
of Pentecost. Previously, the Jews alone, as a chosen 
people, had been included in the charmed circle; but 
on that day, when the influence of the Holy Ghost 
came down on the assembled company, the middle 
wall of partition was thrown down. In answer to 
the cry, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" 
Peter, as spokesman of the Church, said, "Repent 
and be baptized every one of you in the name of 
Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins; for the 



THE CHURCH 85 

promise is unto you and to your children, and to all 
that are afar off, even as many as the Lord 
our God shall call. ,, Thus the keys were turned and 
the gates rolled back to admit not Jews alone but all 
the penitent children of men. It is obvious that in 
this matter Peter stood solitary and alone. To speak 
of his successors would be as presumptuous as to 
make a similar claim with respect to Columbus in his 
discovery of America. The doors being opened once 
for all, there was no further need of those keys. 

A word now as to the power of absolution which 
our Lord conferred upon the Church in the words, 
"Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto 
them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are re- 
tained" (John 20, 23). Let it be observed that this 
authority was bestowed not upon Peter only with his 
fellow apostles, but upon a considerable company of 
believers who were gathered in the upper room; so 
that whatever this power of absolution may mean, 
it is vested in all believers alike. It does not mean 
judicial or plenary absolution; for who can forgive 
sins but God alone? But there is a declaratory abso- 
lution which lies within the province of all true fol- 
lowers of Christ. He said, "As the Father hath sent 
me into the world, so send I you/' What for? He 
was sent to deliver the world from sin, by the power 
of his great sacrifice. We are sent, in like manner, 
to point the nations to the cross. The true absolution 
is by faith in Jesus Christ, and it is for us to declare 
it, saying, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" This procla- 
mation is ratified in heaven. The humblest of 
Christians is commissioned to say, u He that believeth 
in the Son hath everlasting life ; and he that believeth 



86 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

not, the wrath of God abideth on him"; that is, sins 
are remitted or retained on condition of acceptance 
or rejection of Christ crucified. Here is our great 
privilege; we have power to convert; as it is written, 
"He that converteth the sinner from the error of his 
way shall save a soul from death, and hide a multi- 
tude of sins." Here also is our great responsibility; 
since we may retain the sins of the impenitent upon 
them by our neglect to warn them of the wrath to 
come; as it is written, "If I say unto the wicked, 
Thou shalt surely die, and thou givest him no warn- 
ing, he shall die in his sins, but his blood will I re- 
quire at thy hand." Thus we are, in a sense, responsi- 
ble for the destinies of men. 

Out of this general equipment of the Church 
flows logically and necessarily the great commission, 
" Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel"; 
that is, Go and proclaim absolution for all who will 
receive it. And with this commission are associated 
two great promises. On the one hand, our Lord as- 
sures us of his personal presence and countenance in 
this momentous work: "All power is given unto me 
in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach 
all nations : and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto 
the end of the world" (Matt. 28, 18-20). And again 
he assures us that the Church thus equipped and 
endowed shall be immortal till its work is done. "The 
gates of hell shall not prevail against it." The place 
of council in oriental cities was beside the gates ; here 
judges and magistrates met to deliberate on public 
affairs. In vain have kings and rulers taken counsel 
together, within the shadow of hell's gates, against 
the Lord and his Anointed, saying, "Let us break 



THE CHURCH 87 

their bands asunder and cast away their cords from 
us !" The Church is divinely preserved for the ac- 
complishment of its great purpose. 

O where are kings and empires now, 

Of old that went and came ? 
But, Lord, Thy Church is praying yet, 

A thousand years the same. 
Unshaken as the eternal hills, 

Immovable she stands ; 
A mountain that shall fill the earth, 

An house not made with hands. 

But the Church is not to endure forever; only 
until its work is done. There will be no further use 
for its vitalized machinery when the Kingdom is estab- 
lished on earth; that is, when every knee shall bow 
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. 
Then "the holy city, New Jerusalem, will come down 
from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned 
for her husband;" and a great voice will be heard, 
saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men; 
and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his 
people; and God himself shall be with them, and be 
their God" (Rev. 21, 2, 3). 

Meanwhile the Church stands, in pursuance of her 
Lord's promise, as the great miracle of the ages. She 
has done her work imperfectly, bowing oftentimes 
at false shrines, untrue to her espousal vows ; yet she 
has continued to live because she had a work to do. 
And, notwithstanding her imperfections of character 
and vacillation of purpose, hers has been the one 
transforming influence through the history of the 
ages. Like Milton's angel of the morning, she has 
carried a torch that has illuminated the darkness all 



SS THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

along her way. And her power is as the power of 
an invincible army to-day; naught can avail against 
her. The temple which our Lord established upon the 
rock of his sovereign Messiahship rises like the House 
Magnifical, without the sound of hammer or of ax; 
and will continue to rise, stone upon stone, until the 
top-stone is laid with shoutings of "Grace, grace unto 
it!" Then the Glory of the Lord will fill the house 
as the Shekinah filled the temple of the olden time; 
for the Church is divinely destined to be a temple 
fit for the indwelling of the Spirit of God. 



VII 
THE SCRIPTURES 



VII 

THE SCRIPTURES 

One of the stock arguments of the Higher Criti- 
cism is based on the silences of Scripture. For ex- 
ample, the absence of a particular name of God from 
certain portions of the record is taken to show that the 
writer was unfamiliar with it. And the omission of 
certain words and expressions from the latter part of 
the book of Isaiah proves that Isaiah could not have 
composed it. So far as this argument is effective at all, 
it has a double edge; as will be seen when it is ap- 
plied to the singular silence of Jesus with respect to al- 
leged errors in the Word of God. 

Is it not extraordinary that the wonderful Teacher 
never uttered a word or syllable to indicate that he 
supposed that the Book was other than true from be- 
ginning to end? How shall we account for this? 
We are in a dilemma, facing a threefold alternative. 
First : There are no such errors in Scripture. Second : 
The errors are there, but Christ was not aware of 
them. Third: He was aware of these errors but did 
not choose to tell. 

Of course the Higher Critics are bound to reject 
the first horn of this dilemma. They insist not that 
there are occasional errors in the Bible but that it 
is honeycombed with them. There are hundreds, 
thousands, tens of thousands of them. Annals pur- 

(91) 



92 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

porting to be historic are pronounced legendary or 
wholly fabulous ; prophecies are declared to be ex post 
facto; entire books are condemned as forgeries. And 
the errors in question are not unimportant, but of a 
most vital character, touching every one of the great 
doctrines and ethical facts of our religion. In other 
words the Higher Criticism, when frankly stated, 
makes the Bible a mingled tissue of truth and false- 
hood with no means of discriminating between them. 
So far from being "the best of books," if placed along- 
side of a hundred reputable works of science and his- 
tory, it becomes the least trustworthy of them all. 

But if the first horn of the dilemma be impossible to 
a friend of the Higher Criticism, the second is still 
more so, assuming him to be a professed follower of 
Christ. Not long ago an essayist in a ministers' meet- 
ing enquired, "If the statements in the Pentateuch, to 
which Jesus referred, were not true, why did he not 
say so?" to which one of his audience replied, "Be- 
cause he did not know any better." That is to say, 
Christ was less familiar with the true significance of 
Scripture than the so-called Biblical experts of our 
time. This, however, is in direct contravention of 
Christ's constant claim of infallible insight into truth ; 
as where he says, "I am the truth" (John 14, 16) ; and, 
"For this cause came I into the world, that I should 
bear witness to the truth" (John 18, 37). If, indeed, 
with the assumption of omniscience on his lips, he 
really knew less of Scripture than our modern pro- 
fessors of Biblical science, we shall probably agree that 
he is not competent to be our instructor in spiritual 
things. In that case, it would obviously be wiser for 
men who are in serious quest of truth to sit as dis- 



THE SCRIPTURES 93 

ciples at the feet of those who profess to know more 
than he. 

The third horn of the dilemma is all that remains ; 
namely, Christ was aware of these alleged errors, but 
did not choose to tell. Worse and worse! The 
scholars who are exposing the alleged errors of Scrip- 
ture in our time profess to be doing so in the interest 
of truth and honesty. They say they are bound to at- 
tack "Bibliolatry," which is superstition. They are 
constrained by conscience to unearth the truth at all 
hazards. But what of Jesus, then, who so strangely 
held his peace? O that singular silence! That elo- 
quent silence of his ! What shall be said of it ? The 
Jews of his time had an implicit faith in their Scrip- 
tures. They would not touch them with unwashen 
hands; they weighed and measured the relative value 
of their words and sentences; they wore them as 
frontlets between their eyes. Here was Bibliolatry in- 
deed! Were they mistaken, and did Jesus know it? 
How easily he could have corrected their misappre- 
hension. And still did he keep silence? Then, I say, 
he is not competent to be our guide in righteousness ; 
for, evermore, "an honest man's the noblest work of 
God." 

The alternatives are before us. I see no logical po- 
sition for a Christian to take but that the Scriptures 
are true. Out of the ministry of Jesus there comes a 
voice, solemn and conclusive, which determines our 
course in the midst of controversy: "Let not your 
heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid; ye believe 
in God, believe also in me ; — if it were not so, I would 
have told you!' 

I am aware that our argument thus far is nega- 



94 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

tive. It should be observed, however, that this is the 
form of argument most emphasized by the anti-Bibli- 
cal critics. Let it be remembered, too, that silence is 
oftentimes convincing where speech is ineffective. The 
most serious misrepresentations are not unfrequently 
made without a word. He who permits a falsehood 
to pass unchallenged enters into complicity with it. 
Honesty constrains us to speak out. So when Jesus, 
professing to be a teacher of truth, in an age when 
the Scriptures were challenged on every side as vigor- 
ously as at this day, refused to lend his influence by 
word or syllable to the exposure of alleged Biblical 
errors, we are justified in concluding that he believed 
there were no such errors there. He found his dis- 
ciples holding a certain view of Scripture of which, 
had it been erroneous, he must in common honesty 
have dispossessed them. A word would have accom- 
plished this, but the word was unspoken. He left them 
resting in their simple faith, covering the case with 
those significant words, "If it were not so, I would 
have told you." 

We turn now to the positive statements of Jesus. 
His silence, indeed, is eloquent; but we shall find his 
speech conclusive, beyond all controversy, respecting 
his view of the Scriptures. And if we are true fol- 
lowers of Christ, his word must ever be final for us. 

First: He speaks repeatedly of the Scriptures as 
"true" and as "the Word of God." Take a single sen- 
tence from his sacerdotal prayer: "Sanctify them by 
thy truth; thy Word is truth" (John 17, 17). This is 
stronger than if he had said, "Thy Word is true," and 
it is infinitely far from saying, "Thy Word contains 
the truth." Moreover he calls it "Thy Word," setting 



THE SCRIPTURES 95 

it apart from the words of men. We are advised in 
some quarters that, in order to form a just opinion of 
the Scriptures we must divest ourselves of all bias 
and regard them as "literature," subject to the usual 
canons of literary criticism. But Christ evidently did 
not so regard the Scriptures. On the contrary he re- 
proved the scribes, the Biblical experts of that time, 
for giving equivalent value to their own religious writ- 
ings. "Ye make the Word of God," said he, "of none 
effect, by your traditions" (Mark 7, 9-13). He placed 
the divine Word in a category by itself, solitary and 
alone ; ever characterizing it distinctively as truth and 
as the Word of God. 

Second: He made the Scriptures the subject mat- 
ter of his preaching. At the beginning of his min- 
istry he went into the synagogue at Nazareth and 
opened the Book; and, having found the place where 
it was written, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon 
me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel 
to the poor ; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, 
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering 
of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are 
bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord," he 
began to say unto them, "This day is this Scripture 
fulfilled in your ears" (Luke 4, 16-21). And thence, 
through his entire ministry, he went "preaching the 
Word." It is written, "The people pressed upon him 
to hear the Word of God" (Luke 5, 1). He was the 
great expository preacher. The Law and the Pro- 
phets were ever on his lips. Of the Scripture he said 
"It cannot be broken" (John 10, 35) ; and, "One jot 
or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law, till all 
be fulfilled" (Matt. 5, 18). As to the Prophets he 



96 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

found the Messianic hope running through them like 
the theme of an oratorio. All prophecy "must needs 
be fulfilled." Fulfilled ! Fulfilled ! This was his con- 
stant word. Luthardt says, "The position which Jesus 
takes with respect to the Old Testament, and the esti- 
mation in which he holds it, may be clearly seen by the 
use he makes of it. He unquestionably regards the 
Old Testament as absolutely the Word of God." 
Canon Liddon says, "The trustworthiness of the Old 
Testament is, in fact, inseparable from the trustwor- 
thiness of the Lord Jesus Christ; and if we believe 
that he is the true Light of the world, we shall reso- 
lutely close our ears against any of the suggestions of 
the falsehood of those Hebrew Scriptures which have 
received the stamp of his divine authority." Now this 
was the testimony of Jesus all through his ministry to 
the very end. On the morning of his resurrection he, 
unrecognized, joined two of his disciples, who, as they 
journeyed to Emmaus, sadly discussed the failure of 
their hopes. At length he said, "O fools and slow of 
heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!" 
"And beginning at Moses and the prophets he ex- 
pounded in all the Scriptures the things concerning 
himself" (Luke 24, 25). 

Third: The Scriptures were commended by Christ 
as the infallible Rule of Faith and Practice. He so 
received them for himself. In each of the three tempta- 
tions of the wilderness he used the Scriptures as an 
effective foil against the adversary. On being urged 
to change the stones into bread to satisfy his hunger, 
he replied, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread 
alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the 
mouth of God." When it was suggested that he cast 



THE SCRIPTURES 97 

himself from the pinnacle of the temple, thus showing 
his Godhood by his superiority to natural laws, he 
answered, "It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the 
Lord thy God." And when the sovereignty of the 
world was offered him in return for a single act of 
homage rendered to its de facto prince, he answered 
again, "It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord 
thy God and him only shalt thou serve." Thus the 
Bible was, in every case, his weapon of defense. And 
it is a significant fact that the three passages quoted 
on this occasion were all from the book of Deuteron- 
omy, which is pronounced a forgery by the destructive 
critics. 

The Scriptures, which he thus found so effec- 
tive in his own case, are commended to his disciples 
as their infallible Rule of Faith. "Search them," he 
says, "for they are they which testify of me" (John 5, 
39). Our creed is the sum total of the truths which 
center in Christ ; and these are to be found in Scripture. 
Our doctrinal errors, or failures to apprehend truth, 
are due wholly to our disbelief of the Word of God, 
"Ye do err," said he, "because ye know not the Scrip- 
tures nor the power of God" (Mark 12, 24). And 
again, "He that is of God heareth God's words" (John 

8, 47). 

And here, too, is our Rule of Practice: "Search 
the Scriptures for herein ye think (and rightly think) 
ye have eternal life." The life referred to is salvation 
and everything along the way. It includes avoidance 
of sin, devotion to duty, sanctification, heart-cleansing 
(John 15, 3), imitation of Christ; the whole path- 
way, indeed, leading from regeneration to heaven's 
gate. 



98 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

Fourth: Our Lord adventures the integrity and 
success of his redemptive work upon the truth of Scrip- 
ture. The Jews were ever clamoring for " a sign" ; that 
is, some token by which they might verify the validity 
of Christ's tremendous claims. At the outset of his 
ministry he gave such a sign to Nicodemus, who, on 
hearing of Regeneration, exclaimed, "How can these 
things be ?" The Lord on that occasion, appealed to a 
well-known incident in the story of the wilderness 
journey: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wil- 
derness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: 
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, 
but have eternal life" (John 3, 14). On many subse- 
quest occasions he refused the sign which the scribes 
and Pharisees clamored for: but, toward the last, he 
yielded, saying, "An evil and adulterous generation 
seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given 
it but the sign of the prophet Jonas ; for as Jonas was 
three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall 
the Son of man be three days and three nights in the 
heart of the earth" (Matt. 12, 39. 40). Now this is 
one of those "unbelievable tales" which are so derided 
by the destructive critics; yet our Lord hypothecates 
the truth of his Resurrection — the great seal of his re- 
demptive work — on the trustworthiness of that narra- 
tive! I know it is said that Jesus merely referred to 
this by way of illustration, "as one might allude to 
the tale of Aladdin and his lamp/ Let us see : Sup- 
pose he had said, "An evil and adulterous generation 
seeketh after a sign ; and there shall no sign be given it 
but the sign of Aladdin and his lamp: for as cer- 
tainly as Aladdin rubbed his wonderful lamp and 
brought to light the treasures of the cave, so surely 



THE SCRIPTURES 99 

shall the Son of Man, by his resurrection, bring life 
and immortality to light." What a travesty! What 
twisting and torturing of logic must needs be resorted 
to in order to destroy the testimony of Jesus as to the 
truth of Scripture! 

On one occasion, when the religious leaders of 
Jerusalem, angered by his miracles of healing, con- 
fronted him with revilings and threatenings, he said, 
"The Father himself beareth witness of me; and ye 
have not his word abiding in you ; for whom he hath 
sent, him ye believe not. Do not think that I will ac- 
cuse you to the Father : there is one that accuseth you, 
even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed 
Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of 
me. But if ye believe not his writings how shall ye 
believe my words (John 5, 37-47) ?" If this means 
anything, it means that they could not believe in him 
because they rejected the Scriptures. Thus once and 
again he binds the genuineness of his divine mission 
and redemptive work in the same bundle with the truth 
of Scripture. Christ and the Bible stand or fall to- 
gether. These are the two great pillars, which like 
Jachin and Boaz, uphold the temple of Christian truth. 
They are complementary, each to the other, as the 
Written and the Incarnate Word. There is no Christ 
save the Christ of the Scriptures ; and there is no pos- 
sibility of an assurance as to Christ unless we are war- 
ranted in placing an unqualified trust in the testimony 
of those Scriptures as the Word of God. 

Fifth : Our Lord set forth the Scriptures as a de- 
termining factor in the Problem of the Kingdom of 
God. He commissioned his disciples to "go preach." 
Preach what? "The Word." The law of the Kingdom 
L.cfC. 



ioo THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

is germination. The figure is seed-sowing. "He spake 
a parable unto them, saying, 'A sower went forth to 
sow his seed' " ; and when his disciples asked him the 
meaning of this parable, he said, "To you it is given 
to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. Now 
the parable is this: The seed is the Word of God." 
Wherefore, in the work of the Kingdom his disciples 
went everywhere preaching the Word (Acts 8, 4; 
Col. 1, 25; 2 Tim. 4, 2). 

We are not required to regenerate souls. This is 
the divine prerogative. But we are bound to dissemi- 
nate the Word ; and through the Word God saves men. 
The Church shall not fulfill her obligation until her 
missionaries go to the uttermost parts of the earth, 
scattering the words of Scripture as leaves of the tree 
of life. Then God will do the rest. His promise is 
sure. "As the rain cometh down, and the snow from 
heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the 
earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may 
give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater ; so shall 
my Word be that goeth forth out of my mouth : it shall 
not return unto me void; but it shall accomplish that 
which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing where- 
to I sent it" (Isa. 55, 10). 

The experience of the past has proven beyond all 
peradventure that the secret of success in evangeliza- 
tion is implicit faith in the Word of God. A 
Bible preacher is a preacher of power. A Bible 
preacher is a fisher of men. Mr. Moody, not long be- 
fore his death, showed me a petition signed by sixteen 
thousand of the people of Australia and Tasmania, en- 
treating him to come over and "preach the Old Bible 
and the blood of Christ." "The Old Bible," said he, 



THE SCRIPTURES 101 

"has not lost its power. They may rail at it, they may 
revile it, but it stands as an impregnable rock. And 
it has power to save men !" This was the secret of his 
marvelous success. He sowed the Word, and God ful- 
filled his promise; the song of harvest-home greeted 
the great Evangelist as he entered the heavenly city. 

If we would be good soldiers of Christ, we must 
be loyal to the Scriptures. In our equipment (Eph. 
6, 11-18), though there are many parts of armor, there 
is but a single weapon; namely, "the Sword of the 
Spirit." He who would enter battle with a wooden 
sword must know himself foredoomed to failure; but 
a fine confidence nerves the arm of the Christian who 
reads on his Damascus blade the name of its divine 
forger. In the hour of temptation, in the front of 
duty, in the service of the kingdom, he shall quit him- 
self as a good soldier, if only he grasp firmly "the 
sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." 



VIII 
THE HOLY GHOST 



VIII 
THE HOLY GHOST 

Jesus was a revolutionist. His purpose was not 
to stir up a temporary furor, as agitators had fre- 
quently done before his day; nor was it even to pro- 
duce a lasting impression in favor of certain new and 
improved forms of thinking and living, as reformers 
are ever wont to do. He came to establish a king- 
dom, and there must be a tearing down before there 
could be a building up. The kingdom of righteous- 
ness could only be established on the ruins of the 
kingdom of evil. The world must be turned up- 
side down, in order to be right side up. 

All history is to be interpreted in the light of this 
purpose. The progress of events thus far may be di- 
vided into three dispensations. The first was the 
dispensation of the Father, beginning with the pro- 
tevangel, "The seed of the woman shall bruise the 
serpent's head." It was an economy of law and ordi- 
nances, of dreams and prophecies, of angel's visits and 
theophanies; through all of which "the one eternal 
purpose" ran. It closed with the quenching of the 
lights of the sanctuary, the voice of Malachi crying 
in the gathering gloom, "The Sun of Righteousness 
shall arise with healing in his wings!" 

The second dispensation was that of the Son. It 
began with the angel's song, "Glory to God in the 

(xo 3 ) 



104 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

highest," and continued for a brief period of thirty 
years. The thirty wonderful years of Immanuel! 
Their story is written in the simple monograph, "He 
went about doing good." This dispensation also 
closed in darkness; the darkness which enshrouded 
the cross, out of which issued the cry, "It is finished !" 

The third dispensation, in which we are now living, 
is that of the Holy Ghost. It began on the day of 
Pentecost and will continue until "the restitution of 
all things" in the setting up of the Messianic throne. 

It must not be supposed, however, that these dis- 
pensations are exclusive. The oneness of the God- 
head is such that whichever Person may be the official 
Plead of affairs, the others are truly present. Thus, 
while the Father was Administrator or Executive of 
the Old Economy, the Son and the Holy Ghost are 
also referred to as cooperating. In the dispensation 
of the Son, likewise, the presence and participation 
of the Father and the Spirit are plainly noted. Jesus 
was on such terms of intimacy with the Father that 
he was said to be "in his bosom" (John 1, 18). He 
was officially set apart by the Spirit to his sacerdotal 
work (Luke 4, 18; Acts 10, 38) and endued by him 
without measure (John 3, 34) ; insomuch that he was 
thus directed (Luke 4, 14), invigorated (Matt. 12, 28) 
and controlled, (Luke 4, 1). In like manner under 
the present dispensation of the Spirit, the other Per- 
sons of the Godhead are with us. We pray to the 
Father and he heareth us: and the promise of Jesus 
is fulfilled : "Lo, I am with you alway." 

It thus appears that the three Persons of the God- 
head are sympathetically and cooperatively concerned 
in the progress of the kingdom; a fact illustrated at 



THE HOLY GHOST 105 

the baptism of Jesus ; where, as he stands in the water, 
the Father speaks from heaven, "This is my belovtd 
Son" and the Holy Ghost descends like a dove upon 
him (Matt. 3, 16-17). 

But at the close of the ministry of Jesus he, with 
the concurrence of the Father, formally delivered 
up the executive office to the Holy Ghost (John 14, 
16: also 16, 7). Wherefore, while the Son is said 
to have been "sent by the Father," the Holy Spirit 
is said to "proceed from the Father and the Son."* 

I. The official title of the Holy Spirit, in this ex- 
ecutive capacity is The Paraclete. The term does not 
admit of adequate translation. It means literally one 
who is called to stand by, or one who answers an ap- 
peal. Comforter (con-fors) had a like meaning at 
the time when the King James version was made 
but is now used in a much more restricted sense. The 
Paraclete or Comforter is an Advocate, a Counselor, 
a Champion, a Knight-errant hastening to the cry of 
the oppressed; in brief, a universal Helper. He is to 
preside over the affairs of the Kingdom until it shall 
extend from the river unto the ends of the earth. 
He stands by God's people in all emergencies (Mark 
13, 11), arguing down opposition (Luke 21, 15), silen- 
cing cavil, making an end of persecution, advancing 
the royal standards till rival thrones and dynasties 
shall totter to their fall and Christ shall come to be 
King over all and blessed forever. 

The official work of the Spirit was indicated by 
Christ as follows : "And when he is come, he will re- 
prove (convict) the world of sin, of righteousness 
and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on 

* Here the Eastern Church parts company with the Western. See the 
Filioque controversy ; Synod of Toledo A. D. 529. 



io6 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

me; of righteousness, because I go unto my Father, 
and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the 
prince of this world is judged" (John 16, 8-n). He 
is to convict the world of sin by showing its exceeding 
sinfulness. We see sin's most flagrant manifestations, 
such as theft, perjury and adultery, and are repelled 
by them : but the essence of sin, namely its antagonism 
to God, is of little or no consequence to the average 
man. This is made to appear in its true light in the 
rejection of Christ, as he said, "because they believe 
not on me." The Spirit convicts the world in respect 
of righteousness, also by making known its true char- 
acter. Here again the natural apprehension is per- 
verted. We see the outward forms of morality and 
are attracted by them: in fact, however, all such 
righteousnesses are as filthy rags. The only true 
righteousness is that which is by faith in Jesus Christ ; 
the fine linen, clean and white, with which he shall 
clothe his people on the Great Day. And this also 
the Spirit alone reveals to us. Furthermore he "con- 
victs the world in respect of judgment, because the 
prince of this world is judged"; that is, he makes 
clear the marshaling and dividing of hosts in the great 
Armageddon which is now going on. Gog and Ma- 
gog to the fray ; and every man to his own side ! There 
is no neutral ground. This choosing of sides in judg- 
ment will be finally and forever consummated at the 
Great Day, when the righteous and the unrighteous 
shall be separated as a shepherd divideth the sheep 
from the goats. This truth is the clew to the philoso- 
phy of history ; and it is being disclosed more and 
more clearly by the Spirit in the progress of events. 
II. The Holy Ghost is called the Spirit of Life. 



THE HOLY GHOST lo7 

At the creation he is said to have "moved upon the 
face of the waters," bringing life out of death, order 
and organization out of chaos (Gen. i, 2). The life 
communicated to man in the beginning was from him 
as the Breath or Spirit of God (Gen. 2, 7). 

And this is true particularly in the spiritual prov- 
ince. In our Lord's conversation with Nicodemus 
he ascribed the work of regeneration to the Spirit. 
Here is the great miracle which is being wrought every 
day. The wonder will never cease. "The wind blow- 
eth where it listeth ; and thou hearest the sound there- 
of, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it 
goeth ; so is every one that is born of the Spirit" (John 
3, 8). Our Lord came into the world to give life, 
and to give it more abundantly; and this life is com- 
municated by the Spirit to the children of men. It is 
by the power of the Holy Spirit that we are brought 
into such vital union with Jesus as to be mystically 
one with him (parable of the Vine, John 15). One 
who is born again is born of the Spirit ; and whoever 
is born of the Spirit can say, "I no longer live, but 
Christ liveth in me" ; and, "My life is hid with Christ 
in God." 

III. He is also the Spirit of Truth (John 14, 17). 
It is through him that the revelation of truth is made 
to us ; by inspiration on the one hand and interpreta- 
tion on the other. It must be remembered that Jesus, 
in his teaching, expressly disavowed any purpose of 
completing the canon of revealed truth; he only "be- 
gan to teach" (Acts 1,1). He expressly said that 
there were some things which his disciples were as 
yet not able to bear (John 16, 12-14) ; but, breathing 
upon his apostles the influence of the Spirit, he quali- 



io8 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

fied them to complete the outline, to elaborate and codi- 
fy the sum total of revealed truth. 

We have no means of knowing the method of in- 
spiration, only so far as this: "Holy men of God 
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (2 
Pet. 1, 21). It is evident that this gift of inspiration 
must have been wholly different from what we call 
"genius ;" the latter, as the word indicates, being 
something born within a man, while the former, as 
the word also indicates, is something from without 
breathed in. The writers of Scripture, under the 
control of the Spirit, are "moved," that is, borne on- 
ward, or directed as to what they should write; and 
are furthermore restrained so that what they write 
is truth vouched for by the Spirit of God. 

It is not enough, however, that the truth shall be 
impressed upon the written or printed page; it must 
be made clear to men. There is a double veil, over 
the word and over the heart 2 to be removed (2 Cor. 
3, 12-16). 

It is the function of the Holy Spirit to anoint 
the eyes with eyesalve that men may see; for 
spiritual things can only be discerned by the Spirit of 
God (1 Cor. 2, 13). There are five physical gates by 
which impressions enter the mind; but there is an- 
other gate whereat spiritual truth must pass in, and 
this can be opened only by the Spirit. It is as pre- 
posterous to expect to perceive a spiritual truth by 
any of the five physical senses as it would be to insist 
on hearing with the eyes or seeing with the ears. One 
of the tests of vision used by opticians is a series 
of concentric circles, which show the narrow limit of 
natural sight. The great body of truth lies beyond 



THE HOLY GHOST I09 

the outer circle; where faith alone can apprehend it. 
Nicodemus, in view of the heavenly things which 
Jesus declared to him, cried out, "How can these 
things be?" (John 3, 3-5). It is ever thus with the 
natural man when he crosses the border into the terra 
incognita of spiritual things. He is as a blind man 
groping along the wall. Here the Spirit helps him, 
leading him into all truth (John 14, 26, and 15, 26). 

IV. The Comforter is called the Holy Spirit, or 
the Spirit of Holiness. This is not because he is 
holier than the other persons of the Godhead, but 
because it is his official function to make men holy. 
This is done negatively in justification; and positively 
in sanctification. 

It is the part of the Holy Ghost to apply the re- 
demption purchased by Christ (John 16, 14). We 
are inclined by him to accept Christ as our Redeemer, 
and declared by him to be purged of sin. Our faith 
is the hyssop branch by which the atoning blood is 
sprinkled on our hearts : and his is the hand that wields 
it. 

Then begins our sanctification, or growth in holi- 
ness. There is nothing magical nor mysterious about 
this. The process is indicated by our Lord in his 
sacerdotal prayer, "Sanctify them by thy truth, thy 
word is truth" (John 17, 17). The Scriptures are 
the means used by the Spirit for our increase in 
spiritual stature. A child that would advance to a 
vigorous maturity must eat at the table provided for 
it. The Spirit spreads our table ; here are truths, pre- 
cepts, promises, warnings, admonitions, incentives to 
duty, all the rich viands of God. And the word of 
the Spirit is, "Eat and drink abundantly, O well be- 



no THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

loved !" There is truth outside of the Scriptures ; but 
here is the official, authoritative table spread for us. 
The Christian who neglects his Bible to feed on dreams 
and visions must expect to lament, "O, my leanness! 
my leanness !" But he who shows himself in sympa- 
thetic accord with the Master's prayer, "Sanctify 
them by thy word," becomes partaker of the divine 
nature and grows more and more unto the stature of 
the fulness of Christ. 

V. The Holy Ghost is also called the Spirit of 
Power. His influence is the great moral dynamic. 
The Lord said to his disciples, on his departure, "Tarry 
ye at Jerusalem until ye be endued with power." They 
waited ten days, with one accord in prayer, until it 
came. It came from heaven with a sound as of a 
rushing mighty wind; and there appeared unto them 
cloven tongues, like as of fire ; and they were all filled 
with the Holy Ghost (Acts 2, 1-4). This was their 
qualification for the work of the kingdom. 

It seems to me that we have only partly apprehended 
as yet the full significance of this manifestation of 
the tongues of fire. The kingdom is to come through 
the propagation of truth ; and this will never be accom- 
plished until the eloquence of the church, not in preach- 
ing only but in holy living, is a veritable gospel of 
flame. I am helped to interpret this miracle by my 
remembrance of what occurred at the burning of Chi- 
cago; when, through the hot, dense, incandescent air, 
lambent tongues of flame seemed to leap forth, with- 
out warning, from secret places and to lick up every- 
thing before them. The time will come when men 
shall speak the gospel, "as the Spirit gives them utter- 
ance," in like manner; when the eloquence of truth 



THE HOLY GHOST in 

shall be heated to the burning point; when they shall 
utter, as Gray said, "thoughts that breathe and words 
that burn." This is preaching; all else is empty 
speech. 

In the office of the executive committee of the 
American Tract Society there is a portable pulpit, a 
frail structure which was carried about by George 
Whitfield in his field preaching. He was a man of 
mean presence, like Paul, but power attended upon 
him. You may read his sermons in vain to find the 
secret of eloquence. They are as weak as dry tinder ; 
yet, when he preached them, the people hung upon 
his lips; they perched in the very trees to hear him. 
At night they came with torches and filled the fields. 
Princes and courtiers were there; such men as Hume 
and Horace Walpole, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Gold- 
smith, Doddridge, Lord Chesterfield. And the multi- 
tudes were swayed before him like a wheat-field when 
the wind passes over it. Garrick said, "It is worth 
going forty miles to hear him pronounce the word, 
Mesopotamia." And he gathered in thousands of 
souls as prisoners of hope. Where was the secret? 
His was the flaming tongue! The time will come 
when all ministers shall preach under the power of 
the Spirit with like power to the saving of men. 

Nor was this intended for ministers only; all 
alike are to testify for Christ : "Ye shall be witnesses 
unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in 
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" 
(Acts i, 8). And for this service all alike must be 
endued with the power. It was a great promise that 
Christ gave to his disciples, "He that believeth on 
me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater 



ii2 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

works than these shall he do, because I go unto my 
Father" (John 14, 12). Greater works than those of 
Jesus ! Yes ; because his was the work of preparation. 
A fortnight had not passed after his ascension, when 
one of his disciples preached the gospel with such 
power that his hearers, pricked to the heart, cried out, 
"Men and brethren, What shall we do?" And three 
thousand were gathered into the kingdom that day. 
Greater works? Why not? "For it is not ye that 
speak, but the Spirit speaketh in you" (Matt. 10, 19- 
20). Ah, when we are willing to receive the fulness 
of his promise of power we shall work such wonders 
as we have never dreamed of. There will be no dull 
sermons in those days, no drowsy hearers, no truth 
like water poured upon the ground which cannot be 
gathered up again. The feeblest word of the humblest 
believer shall be like an arrow speeding to the joints 
of sin's harness. Those shall be the days of conquest, 
and the rolling tide of the kingdom shall cover the 
earth as the waters cover the sea. 

The promise is to all who shall be willing in the 
day of God's power. We are as efficient as we are 
willing to be. It is the Lord's purpose that his fol- 
lowers should be strong. The seed of the Kingdom, 
is in this promise, "If ye then, being evil, know how 
to give good gifts unto your children ; how much more 
shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to 
them that ask him?" (Luke II, 13). 

Come, Holy Spirit, come! Come as Dew of the 
morning to refresh us ! Come as Light, to illuminate 
our understanding in spiritual things ! Come as Fire, 
to energize us for our work in the kingdom of God ! 



IX 
THE INDIVIDUAL 



IX 



THE INDIVIDUAL 

The last thing a man learns in the process of moral 
education is his own individuality. We are egotists 
by nature, our first idol being in the looking-glass; 
but egotism or selfishness is one thing and true self- 
consciousness is another. Tennyson says, 

" The baby new to earth and sky, 
What time his tender palm is prest 
Against the circle of the breast, 
Has never thought that i This is P; 

But, as he grows, he gathers much, 
And learns the use of * I ' and ' me,' 
And finds, 'lam not what I see, 
And other than the things I touch? " 

This is the discovery which was made by Des Cartes 
on that famous November night when, walking by 
the Danube, he stood still for a moment and cried, 
"Ich bin Ich!" It is indeed a great moment for a 
man when he realizes that he stands alone before God ; 
that he was born alone, alone must meet the vicissi- 
tudes of life, alone pass through the Valley of the 
Shadow, and answer for himself alone at the judg- 
ment bar of God. 

It is my purpose here to show how Christ, in his 
teaching, emphasizes this fact; how he sets a man 
apart by himself, surrounding him with an atmo- 
sphere of singular privilege and responsibility, as an 

(«5) 



n6 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

important factor in the solution of the problem of the 
kingdom of God. 

I. Let us begin with the query which stands as the 
caption of our Lord's philosophic system, to wit, 
"What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole 
world and lose his own soul? or, What shall a man 
give in exchange for his soul" (Matt. 16, 24-28) ? 
We have much to say in these times about altruism 
and social obligation: it should be understood, how- 
ever, that our first duty is to set ourselves right indi- 
vidually before God. It is a vain thing to prate about 
the regeneration of society until one's own regenera- 
tion has been duly attended to. 

II. In our Lord's use of Personal Pronouns we 
shall find a strong emphasis put upon the same fact. 
It was one of Luther's passing observations that the 
preaching of Christ can be largely interpreted by 
his pronouns. Observe how he thus takes a man 
out of the mass and sets him alone. "I," "Thou" and 
"He" are favorite words of his. Then come those 
distributive words, "whoever" and "whosoever"; as 
where he says, "Whosoever shall confess me before 
men" (Matt. 10, 32-33) ; and, "Whosoever heareth 
these words of mine and doeth them" (Matt. 7, 24- 
29). He constantly individualizes his audience by 
such expressions as these: "Every one that asketh 
receiveth" (Matt. 7, 8) ; "To every one that hath 
shall be given" (Luke 19, 26) ; "So is every one that 
is born of the Spirit" (John, 3, 8). He does not use 
the generic term as most philosophers are fond of 
doing, but prefers to speak of "a man" or "any man" 
or "a certain man" ; as, "If any man hath ears to hear" 
(Mark 4, 23) ; "If any man eat of this bread, he shall 



THE INDIVIDUAL 



117 



live forever" (John 6, 51) ; "If any man serve me, let 
him follow me" (John 12, 26). 

III. In our Lord's view of Providence he particu- 
larizes in a similar way. He is not satisfied to say 
that God cares for the world ; listen to this : "Are 
not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of 
them shall not fall to the ground without your Father. 
But the very hairs of your head are all numbered" 
(Matt. 10, 29. 30). — A man with a withered hand 
presents himself to be healed; the Pharisees object 
because it is the Sabbath day; hear the Master: 
"What man shall there be among you that shall have 
one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, 
will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out ? How much 
then is a man better than a sheep?" (Matt. 12, 10-13). 
And again he calls a little child and sets him in the 
midst of them, saying, "Whoso shall offend one of 
these little ones which believe in me, it were better for 
him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and 
that he were drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matt. 
18, 2-6). — Thus fr©m sparrows, sheep, little children, 
he draws his great doctrine of Providence; announc- 
ing a God who not only wheels the worlds around 
their orbits but takes cognizance of all things in minu- 
test detail. 

In his miracles of healing our Lord illustrates 
this divine plan. He visits the lame, halt and 
withered in the porches of Bethesda not that he 
may heal them all together as by one stroke of a 
magic wand, but to select the neediest, showing his 
acquaintance with all (John 5, 6). As he journeys 
through the villages of Galilee the sick are brought 
out and laid on couches along the way; and, though 



n8 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

the virtue of his passing shadow might have sufficed 
to restore the whole company, he attends to each in 
turn— "Be whole I'— "Receive thy sight !"— "Arise 
and walk!" — and thus heals them "every one" (Luke 
4, 40). 

IV. Our Lord's presentation of the Plan of Re- 
demption is pervaded by the same fact. He does 
indeed set forth the all-embracing love; saying, "God 
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son" 
but he must needs individualize this mercy to make it 
effective, as when he adds, "that whosoever believeth 
in him might not perish but have everlasting life." It 
is difficult to conceive how Christ could have pre- 
sented this distributive love of the Father more effec- 
tively than when he said: "How think ye? If a man 
have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone 
astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth 
into the mountains, and seeketh that which is lost? 
And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he 
rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and 
nine which went not astray" (Matt. 18, 12. 13). So 
the heart of God is ever going out after the one; the 
one sheep that has strayed into the wilderness, the 
one lost coin, the one wayward boy who has gone into 
the far country and there forgotten his home. 

In pursuance of this thought our Lord himself 
was ever extending his overtures of mercy to one and 
to another one. He never preached a more wonderful 
sermon than when he spoke of regeneration to a 
lone rabbi, who sought him under cover of the dark. 
It is written that, purposing to go into the North, 
"he must needs pass through Samaria"; not because 
that was the shortest way, but because there was a 



THE INDIVIDUAL 119 

woman of the town awaiting his coming near Sychar, 
that she might be refreshed with the water of life. He 
was ever turning aside from the multitude to heed the 
prayer of the lonely one: like the young ruler who 
ran and fell before him, saying, "What shall I do that 
I may inherit eternal life?" or the thief who, sep- 
arated from his fellow by an infinite gulf of penitence, 
begged for pity on the cross. It is not thus that we 
plan our great campaigns. When Francis Xavier 
was propagandizing in Japan he is said to have 
sprinkled the assembled multitudes with holy water. 
The plan of Jesus, on the contrary, was to call men of 
the company, one by one, and reason with them and 
bring them to God. 

V. Jesus' regard for the individual is seen still 
further in his Philosophy of the Kingdom. Observe 
his parables: "For the kingdom of heaven is as a 
man travelling into a far country, who called his ser- 
vants and delivered unto them his goods. To one he 
gave five talents, to another two, and to another one 
(mark the distribution) to every one according to his 
several ability ;" and, "After a long time the lord of 
those servants cometh and reckoneth with them (again 
observe the distribution) and to one he said, Well 
done, thou good and faithful servant; and to an- 
other, Thou wicked and slothful servant" (Matt. 25, 
14-30). Thus separately they rendered their account 
to him. — "And the kingdom of heaven is like unto a 
man that is an householder who hired laborers into 
his vineyard; and when even was come he saith unto 
his steward, Call the laborers and give them their 
hire, beginning from the last unto the first; and they 
received every man a penny" (Matt. 20, 1-10). — 



i2o THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

Again, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven 
which a woman took and hid in three measures of 
meal till the whole was leavened" (Luke 13, 20). 
Chemists tell us that the process of leavening is by 
atomic contact ; that is, the whole lump is leavened by 
the touch of particle with particle. So is the growth 
of the kingdom. If we look for a counterpart of this 
parable of the leaven, we shall find it in the story 
of the Shunammite, who, when her child had died of 
sunstroke, summoned Elisha with all haste to heal him. 
In vain did the prophet delegate his servant to go 
with a staff ; he must needs come himself. And, on en- 
tering the upper room where the child was prepared 
for his burial, "he put his mouth upon his mouth, and 
his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands, 
and stretched himself upon the child, and the flesh of 
the child waxed warm" (2 Kings 4, 34). It is thus, 
by personal contact, that the thrill of the indwelling 
life of the Spirit is communicated from soul to soul, 
even to the quickening of those who are dead in tres- 
passes and sins. 

VI. The Campaign of the Kingdom was marked 
out by Christ along these lines. The name of the 
Church indicates a process of selection: Ek-klesia, 
that is, "called out." Our Lord called out his follow- 
ers from the world, one by one. Passing by the re- 
ceipt of customs, he said to Matthew, "Arise and fol- 
low me." Seeing a group of fishermen mending their 
nets by the lake-shore, he called them, "John, James, 
Simon, Andrew; arise and follow me." Thus, as 
time passed, the church was marshaled for its work ; 
and down through the centuries the multitudes have 
come in the same way. 



THE INDIVIDUAL 121 

The time having arrived for beginning the great 
propaganda, Jesus said, "Go ye into all the world 
and evangelize!" and straightway he proceeded to 
"separate" them unto the work. He "scattered them 
abroad." He bade the seventy go forth two by two, 
making a concession to their loneliness and danger, 
as sheep in the midst of ravening wolves, yet not 
grouping them so as to impair their personal effective- 
ness. "Separate me Barnabas and Saul," he said. To 
Philip, the deacon, on his lone journey to Gaza, he 
said, "Go, join thyself to yonder chariot." His ulti- 
mate purpose was to evangelize the court and kingdom 
of Queen Candace; but he would accomplish this by 
winning her high-chancellor to a knowledge of the 
truth. It is well to remember these things at a 'time 
when the importance of great movements is being em- 
phasized. God has apparently, less use for crusades 
than for personal expeditions into the regions of dark- 
ness and the shadow of death. He wants life-savers 
who shall keep their lonely watch along the dreary 
shores. He wants solitary missionaries who in 
the regions beyond, like Paul alone in Athens, 
are ever alert to win prisoners of hope. We are 
apt to set too high a value on organizations in these 
days. We dispense our charities and perform our 
religious duties largely by proxy. But there are 
some things which cannot be farmed out. He who 
fails to put the cup of cold water to thirsty lips with 
his own hands loses the sweetest pleasure in life; to 
wit, "the generous pleasure of a kindly deed" (Matt. 
10, 42). And he who turns over to an organization 
the sum total of his personal privilege of visiting the 
sick and clothing the naked, can scarcely expect tq 



122 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

hear those gracious words of Jesus : "Inasmuch as ye 
did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye 
did it unto me" (Matt. 25, 34-46). 

The personal factor in the kingdom needs to be 
emphasized more than ever because the followers of 
Christ find it so easy nowadays to shift their respon- 
sibility on others. "Go," said Christ. "We will send 
a substitute for you," says the Missionary Board. It is 
a common proverb among pastors that nine-tenths of 
the work of the average local church is done by one- 
tenth of its members. What are the other nine-tenths 
doing? Shifting their burden. Meanwhile the sal- 
vation of the world waits on the faithfulness of all. 
The Bridegroom bends above his bride, sleeping in 
the gates, and cries, "Awake, awake, put on thy 
strength, O Zion!" The world will soon be saved 
when the church shall realize the words of Wesley, 
"All at it, always at it, all together at it." 

What now is our practical conclusion from these 
teachings of Christ? 

First : A man must accept the overtures of mercy 
for himself alone; as he said, "If any man will come 
after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and 
follow me." There is no salvation by proxy. Ob- 
serve how the importance of personal faith is set forth 
in the parable of the Wedding Garment (Matt. 22 i 
11, 12). 

Second: The demand of the law, as Christ pre- 
sents it, is for personal obedience. "Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God", and "Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bor." In like manner, reward and punishment are to 
be administered to each according to personal desert. 
At the last day the Judge shall separate the righteous 



THE INDIVIDUAL 123 

and the wicked, "one from another, as a shepherd 
divideth his sheep from the goats" (Matt. 25, 32). 

Third : The service of the kingdom is an individual 
service. Each for himself must render it. Jesus 
said, "The good shepherd calleth his sheep by name." 
Let it be noted how frequently he enlisted his follow- 
ers in that way. At his first meeting with Nathanael 
he showed such intimate acquaintance with him that 
the man was moved to inquire, "Whence knowest thou 
me?" Jesus answered, "When thou wast under the 
fig-tree I saw thee" (John 1, 48). To the Magdalene 
weeping in the garden of the resurrection he said, 
"Mary!" Whereupon she fell at his feet, crying, 
"Rabboni!" that is to say, "My Master!" making 
at that moment such a complete surrender of herself 
as no one ever knows until the Lord has spoken in 
this way. To the arch-inquisitor of the Sanhedrin 
on his way down to Damascus he said, "Saul ! Saul ! 
Why persecutest thou me?" And the colloquy which 
followed showed the close acquaintance of Jesus with 
both friends and foes: "Who art thou, Lord?" — "I 
am Jesus whom thou persecutest." — "Lord, what wilt 
thou have me to do?" 

I passed by a great building in process of erection, 
where the sound of saws and hammers was heard 
on every side, and busy men, their sleeves rolled up 
and perspiration on their faces, passed to and fro. 
One stood leaning against a post with folded arms, 
quite out of sympathy with the tokens of industry 
all about him. Thus while God and his hosts are 
laboring together in the work of the kingdom, there 
are many who have no part in it. Here is one busy 
with the muck-rake, getting together a little yellow 



i2 4 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

dust which presently must sift through his stiff 
fingers. Here is another chasing thistle-down, or 
grasping a laurel wreath. Poor souls! Their 
best success is failure. God's work goes on without 
them. No man is indispensable to God, but there is 
a work appointed for every one. God calls, "Go work 
to-day!" He calls us, man by man; calls us by our 
names. To be oblivious of that call is to be spiritually 
dead, because unmindful of the chief end of life. A 
man begins to live when he hears God calling, and 
when he answers like Saul of Tarsus, "Lord, what 
wilt thou have me to do?" 



ETHICS 



THE MORAL LAW 



THE MORAL LAW 

The Jews looked for a Christ who would vindicate 
the Law and the Prophets. The Messianic claims of 
Jesus of Nazareth were tested by this touchstone and 
found wanting. He was seen healing on the Sabbath, 
eating with unwashen hands and otherwise violating 
their code as interpreted by the doctors of the Law. 
That was enough ; the people said, "This cannot be the 
Christ." 

And from their standpoint they were quite right. 
No one could justly claim to be Messiah who was un- 
able to prove himself in perfect accord with the Moral 
Law as set forth in the Decalogue and elaborated in 
other parts of Scripture. For God is himself the 
source and center of Law, from whom all prin- 
ciples of truth and justice radiate as sunlight 
from the sun. And man, as originally made in 
God's likeness, was a normal being, the Law be- 
ing interwoven through the very fiber of his life. 
Our word Law is derived from the Saxon lagu, "that 
which is laid down." The Hebrews called it torah, 
"that which is pointed out." The Greeks called it 
nomos, "that which is distributed" or apportioned 
among men. But whatever the Law be called, it is 
the expression of God's will for the life of man. 

And what is sin? "Any want of conformity unto 
or transgression of the Law." Transgression is liter- 
ally "a crossing of the line." It puts a man at odds 

(127) 



128 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

with both himself and God. The sinner is an outlaw ; 
that is, an abnormal man. At this point Christ differs 
from all other men. He took our nature and was in 
all points such as we are, "yet without sin." For 
this reason he is set apart by himself, by the testimony 
of the Father, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I 
am well pleased." 

It is thus apparent that, if Jesus would vindicate 
his Messianic claim, the rumor that he was at odds 
with the divine Law as laid down in the Scriptures 
must be met and confuted. This he does in the Ser- 
mon on the Mount where he says, at the outset, "Think 
not that I am come to destroy the Law or the 
Prophets : I am not come to destroy but to fulfil. For 
verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one 
jot or one tittle shall not pass from the Law till all be 
fulfilled" 

He begins his apologia with the negative state- 
ment, "I am not come to destroy." This is a repudia- 
tion of the antinomian heresy in every form. 

There are antinomians in the Christian Church 
of our time who hold that certain precepts of the 
Decalogue, such as the Fourth Commandment, were 
abrogated by Christ. This is impossible in the nature 
of the case. God never changes. With him there is 
no variableness, neither shadow of turning. There- 
fore the Law, which is the expression of his character, 
is of perpetual force. The requirement of Sabbath 
rest, like every other precept of the Moral Law, is not 
conventional but constitutional. It is more enduring 
than the natural laws of light and gravitation. Man's 
relations may change ; but he himself is a constant fac- 
tor in the problem of life and history; and the prin- 



THE MORAL LAW 129 

ciples of right and wrong, which abide in his nature, 
as a reflex of the divine character, are not liable to 
change. 

For this reason the Ten Words were written on 
tables of stone; and these tables were placed within 
the Ark of the Covenant, as indicating an eternal com- 
pact between the soul and God. It is a significant 
fact, in this connection, that the two ethical symbols 
which have never been challenged, are the Decalogue 
and the Sermon on the Mount, which is Christ's ex- 
position of it. 

There are other antinomians who hold that Christ 
destroyed the binding authority of the Moral Law by 
placing his disciples beyond the jurisdiction of it; as 
when he said: "If ye continue in my word, then are 
ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth 
and the truth shall make you free" (John 8, 31-36). 
In the sixth of Romans we have Paul's exposition of 
this truth. But the freedom here referred to does not 
mean exemption from the obligations of the Moral 
Law. It does mean, on the one hand, that believers 
in Christ are freed from the penalties of the violated 
Law by their faith in his redeeming grace; and, on 
the other, that they are delivered from the bondage 
of service. The impenitent and unforgiven sinner is 
a galley slave, chained to the oar; the moralist is a 
ticket-of-leave-man, on good behavior temporar- 
ily but liable at any moment to be haled to 
judgment for the mislived past; the Christian is a 
freed man, free not to do wrong but to do right, and 
free to do right from the love of it. His obedience 
is not that of bondage but of sonship ; since in Christ 
he receives not the spirit of bondage again to fear 



i 3 o THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

but the spirit of adoption whereby he cries, "Abba, 
Father." This is why his "yoke is easy" and his 
"burden light." True freedom is not exemption from 
Law, but joyous acquiescence in it. The proper defini- 
tion of freedom is perfect obedience to perfect Law. 
(See Paul's great argument, Rom. Chaps. 7 and 8). 

But we pass on to the positive form of Christ's 
proposition; that is, "I am come to fulfil the Law." 
We have nothing to do here with his reference to the 
Ceremonial Law, whose types and symbols, as we shall 
presently see, were all realized in him. The question 
that concerns us now is, "How does Christ fulfil the 
Moral Law?" 

On the one hand, he enforced it in his teaching 
as no other teacher had ever done. In its length, 
breadth, depth and height he magnified it. He made 
the Law high as heaven, tracing its sanctions back to 
the throne of God. With the additions and inter- 
polations of the Elders he had no patience : * * Ye make 
the Law to be of none effect," he said, "by your tradi- 
tion" (Matt. 15, 6). He cared nothing for the in- 
junctions of Hillel or Shammai. He tore away the 
rabbinical glosses or toldoth from the Fourth Command- 
ment and other precepts of the Moral Law, as barna- 
cles are stripped from the hulk of a laboring ship; 
and restored them to their original form and spirit as 
they came from the Throne. "In vain do ye worship 
God," he cried, "teaching for doctrines the command- 
ments of men" (Matt. 15, 9). 

He made the Law deep as the heart. The scribes 
and Pharisees were accustomed to pay tithes of mint, 
anise and cummin; their prayers were long, their 
phylacteries broad. "Woe unto you !" he cried, 



THE MORAL LAW 131 

"hypocrites! Ye are like whited sepulchres; fair 
without, but within full of dead men's bones and all 
uncleanness" (Matt. 23, 13-33). He enjoined and ex- 
horted them to get below the surface of things. The 
righteousness which God requires is the righteousness 
of motive. The obedience which God requires is the 
obedience of the soul. Murder is in the cry, "Raca !" 
Adultery is in an unclean glance. The letter killeth; 
it is the Spirit that giveth life. Up with your hearts 
to God ! 

He made the Law broad as humanity. Where in 
the writings of Plato or Marcus Aurelius, or anywhere 
else in ethical literature, can be found a parallel to 
the mighty sweep of the discourse of Jesus in Luke 
10, 25-37? "And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, 
and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to 
inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is writ- 
ten in the Law ? How readest thou ? And he answer- 
ing said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy 
strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as 
thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered 
right ; this do, and thou shalt live. But he, willing to 
justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my 
neighbor? And Jesus answering said, A certain 
man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell 
among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and 
wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 
And by chance there came down a certain priest that 
way ; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other 
side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, 
came and looked on him, and passed by on the other 
side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came 



i 3 2 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

where he was ; and when he saw him, he had compas- 
sion on him, and went to him, and bound up hi§ 
wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his 
own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of 
him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took 
out two pence and gave them to the host, and said 
unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou 
spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. 
Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neigh- 
bor unto him that fell among the thieves? And he 
said, He that showed mercy on him. Then said 
Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise. " Ob- 
serve the singular answer given to the lawyer's ques- 
tion, "Who is my neighbor?" It is "Go, and be thou 
neighbor to every man." 

And Jesus made the Law long as eternity ; its issues 
reaching out through the endless seons. Its ultimatum 
is righteousness; n "exceeding" righteousness; as 
he said, "Except your righteousness shall exceed that 
of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter 
into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5, 20). It is a 
righteousness diffusive as light, penetrating as salt 
to save and sweeten life. It tolerates no sin : "If thy 
hand offend thee, cut it off; if thine eye offend thee, 
pluck it out" (Mark 9, 43-48). It honors the Law in 
its minutest detail; "Whosoever shall break one of 
these least commandments and shall teach men so, the 
same shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven" 
(Matt. 5, 19). It thus appears that the righteousness 
proposed by the new Teacher was a radical departure 
from the narrow, superficial compliance with the let- 
ter of conventional prescript which was required by 
contemporary "Doctors of the Law." It had its source 



THE MORAL LAW 133 

and sanction in the divine character and indicated 
that beauty of holiness which is the bond of kinship 
between God and his children. 

But Christ not only taught the Moral Law; he 
illustrated its supreme excellence by himself obeying 
it. So exact was this obedience that he could utter 
the challenge, "Which of you convinceth me of sin" 
(John 8, 46) ? And the response to that challenge 
was such as was never witnessed in another case. The 
man who betrayed Jesus to his enemies was driven 
by remorse to cry, "I have betrayed innocent blood l" 
The judge who sentenced him to death was constrained 
to confess, "I find in him no fault at all." And the 
officer in charge of his execution said, "Verily, this 
was a righteous man!" 

Nor is this all: the centuries that have passed 
give cumulative testimony to the spotless char- 
acter of Jesus. There is no lack of cavilers at 
the church, at Christians and at Christian doctrine; 
but Christ is by universal consent the incompara- 
ble Man. He is thus characterized by Ernest Renan : 
"the incomparable Man, to whom the universal 
conscience has decreed the title Son of God, and that 
w T ith justice, since he caused religion to take a step in 
advance immeasurably greater than any other in the 
past and probably than any yet to come." — Of like 
purport are the words of David Strauss, "Little as 
humanity will ever be without religion, so little will it 
be without Christ ; for to have religion without Christ 
would be as absurd as to enjoy poetry without regard 
to Homer or Shakespeare. He remains the highest 
model of religion within the reach of our thought; 



134 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

and no perfect piety is possible witKout his presence 
in the heart." 

Nor must we omit to mention the passive obedience 
of Jesus, as having a vital relation to our welfare. He 
bowed his great heart to the just penalties of the Law, 
which had been passed upon the children of disobe- 
dience. As our representative and substitute before 
the offended Law he "became obedient unto death," 
inasmuch as it had been written in the Law, "The soul 
that sinneth, it shall die." Never has such a transcend- 
ent tribute been paid to the integrity of Law as when 
Jesus, assuming the sinner's place, yielded himself to 
death on the accursed tree. The ransom required was 
just; therefore he paid it. "He was wounded for our 
transgressions and bruised for our iniquities; the 
chastisement of our peace was upon him." Thus God 
"hath set forth Jesus to be a propitiation through 
faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for 
the remission of sins that are past, through the for- 
bearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time, his 
righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier 
of him which believeth in Jesus" (Rom. 3, 25. 26). 

This obedience of Christ, both active and passive, 
is placed to the credit of such as believe in him. His 
passive obedience is the ground of their justification; 
as it is written, "By his stripes we are healed." And 
the benefit of his active obedience is made over to 
them, by imputation, as a garment of "fine linen clean 
and white," so that they stand before God not as in- 
nocent only but as meritorious, for Jesus' sake. This 
is that righteousness of which Paul has so much to say, 
"the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus 
Christ," and of which we sing : 



THE MORAL LAW 135 

"Jesus, thy blood and righteousness 
My beauty are, my glorious dress ; 
Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed, 
With joy shall I lift up my head." 

Thus the Gospel is seen to be distinctly a Gospel of 
Law. The cry, "Back to Christ !" is mere sound and 
sentiment unless we are prepared to add, "Back to the 
Sanctity of the Moral Law !" For every breath that 
Jesus drew was in an atmosphere of righteousness; 
and the mind that was in him must also be in those 
that serve and follow him. For "can two walk to- 
gether except they be agreed?" A true Christian 
would rather suffer than sin, because his Lord and 
Master hates sin. His word of command is, "Follow 
me"; and this is the equivalent of that great saying, 
"Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven 
is perfect" (Matt. 5, 48). 

It is often remarked that if Jesus ever wrote any- 
thing, we have no record of it. It had been, however, 
prophesied of old that he should write the divine Law 
in the hearts of the people ; and this he did by making 
it resplendent in his life and so teaching it that all who 
love him must perforce love it. He transcribed it from 
tables of stone to fleshly tables of the heart ; and, in 
so doing, brought his people forth out of bondage 
into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 



XI 

THE CEREMONIAL LAW 



XI 



THE CEREMONIAL LAW 

It is a mistake to speak disparagingly of Judaism ; 
or to say to the Old Testament, "What have I to do 
with thee?" The rites and ordinances so devoutly 
observed by God's chosen people for centuries are 
not to be consigned as cast-off garments or broken 
shards to the rubbish heap. Not so did our Lord re- 
gard them. It is our present purpose to consider his 
attitude toward the Ceremonial Law. 

I. As to its Place. He treats it as a distinct and 
important part of religion. It is well to remember 
that there is and, in the necessity of the case, can be 
only one true religion. Its purpose is indicated by the 
derivation of the word, which is usually traced to 
re-ligare, meaning "to bind back." It suggests the 
divine origin of man, his lamentable fall and the 
possibility of his restoration to God. Ethics is not 
religion ; benevolence is not religion ; though both are 
included in it, because God is both love and righteous- 
ness. But the heart of religion is salvation. What 
ever else it does, it must offer a rational answer to the 
question, "What shall I do to be saved?" The only 
system in the world which professes to do this is that 
contained in the Scriptures; and of this Judaism is 
an essential though prefatory part. The Bible is not 

(137) 



138 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

two books, but one: Judaism and the Gospel being 
complementary each to the other, and together consti- 
tuting the Word of God. 

The Old Economy was provisional, and prepara- 
tory to something further on. Paul calls it a paren- 
thesis, where he says, "The law entered (literally, 
'came in along side') that the offense might abound" 
(Rom. 5, 20). The purpose of this parenthesis was that 
men might learn the exceeding sinfulness of sin; for 
not otherwise would they realize the need of a de- 
liverer. Thus it is written, "By the law is the 
knowledge of sin." It is apparent, then, that Judaism 
was intended to prepare the way for the coming of 
Christ. 

The same thought is suggested by Paul where he 
says, "The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to 
Christ, that we might be justified by faith; but after 
that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmas- 
ter, for ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ 
Jesus" (Gal. 3, 24). The word here rendered 
"schoolmaster" is paidagogos. Now the pedagogue of 
the Greeks was not a schoolmaster at all, but the serv- 
ant who led the reluctant pupil to school. The sinful 
race is here represented as a "whining schoolboy, with 
satchel and shining morning face, creeping like snail 
unwillingly to school ;" which is another way of saying 
that the sinner is averse to truth. Wherefore the 
law is introduced to lead, mayhap to drive him. The 
rites and ceremonies of Judaism were not intended to 
be a final or comprehensive religion, but to open up to 
it, as the aisle leads to the altar; to foreshow it, as 
shadows cast forward by the rising sun predict the 
break of day. 



THE CEREMONIAL LAW 139 

II. As to its Message. It is commonly said that 
the central fact of Judaism is the Unity of God ; that 
it was designed to preserve monotheism through 
periods of spiritual declension and transmit it to suc- 
ceeding ages. But this is inadequate; since, in fact, 
monotheism is an intuitive and universal thought, not 
requiring any Bible or labored effort to preserve it. 

Not more satisfactory is the suggestion that the 
purpose of Judaism was to emphasize the moral 
law; for the fundamental facts of morality also are 
intuitive. The moral law is so interwoven with the 
frame and fiber of humanity that no process of the 
centuries can wholly obliterate it. This is apparent 
from the fact that while the Decalogue is the sole per- 
fect symbol of ethics, there is not one of its principles 
which cannot be found imbedded in the "Noble Eight- 
fold Path" of Buddhism, or in the Analects of Con- 
fucius, or elsewhere in the imperfect codes of the 
pagan world. 

Nor is it sufficient to say that Judaism was in- 
tended to teach the Divine Providence in the history 
of Israel. No book, hierarchy or liturgy is necessary 
to display the hand of God in the affairs of men. 
There is not a fetish-worshipper by the banks of 
the Congo who, bowing before a shark's tooth or a 
crooked stick set up in the midst of his kraal, does not 
pay tribute to the fact that "there's a divinity that 
shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will." 

No, we must search further for the ultimate purpose 
of Judaism; and we shall find it, as I believe, in the 
development, unfolding and final revelation of the 
"Mystery of Godliness. ,, Now godliness is God-like- 
ness; and the Mystery of God-likeness is God's plan 



i 4 o THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

for the restoration of fallen man to the likeness in 
which he originally created him. It is his answer to 
the question, "What shall I do to be saved?" that is, 
How shall I get back to God? 

III. As to the Development of this Mystery. Its 
germ is in the protevangel ; "The seed of woman shall 
bruise the serpent's head ; and it shall bruise his heel" 
(Gen. 3, 15). These words were spoken at the time 
of the Fall. They predicted the coming of a Deliverer 
in the behalf of the ruined race ; who should go forth 
against the adversary and inflict upon him a mortal 
wound, but, in doing so, should shed his own blood; 
that is, the rescue was to be accomplished through 
vicarious pain; and this Coming One was to be born 
of a woman ; that is, to take flesh upon him. 

The utterance of this prophecy was immediately 
followed by the institution of sacrifice. At the gate 
of paradise we see Abel bowing before an altar with 
blood streaming over its sides. The development of 
the Mystery of Godliness may be traced through 
the whole record by that red trail. The life is in the 
blood. "Without shedding of blood is no remis- 
sion ;" and "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from 
all sin." 

As time passes, there are altars blazing on all the 
hilltops. Lambs, bullocks, hecatombs and victims are 
being offered, to set forth in silhouette "the Lamb 
slain from the foundation of the world." But gradu- 
ally the worshipers are led away into error; and in 
the surge of the Deluge with prayers to alien gods upon 
their lips they are swept away. 

A new epoch begins with Noah and his household, 
who, on the heights of Ararat, "offered unto the 



THE CEREMONIAL LAW 141 

Lord a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour." The 
covenant is thus resealed with blood. The earth is 
repeopled, cities are built, thrones and dynasties are 
reared; — and again in process of time the nations 
forget God. 

God speaks to Abraham : "Go forth from thy coun- 
try and thy father's house to a land that I shall show 
thee." Why this call? That the oracles might be 
preserved and handed down to posterity (Ro. 3, 1) ; 
the oracles in which was contained the Mystery of 
Godliness ; that is, the prophecy of the coming Lamb of 
God. In the proof of Abraham's faith on Mt. Moriah 
(Gen. 22) , we behold an imposing pantomime of the 
great tragedy which was afterwards to be enacted on 
Calvary. Thus the plan of salvation grows clearer 
and clearer. 

But again the people are untrue to their oracles; 
and chastisement falls. They groan in the brick 
kilns of Egypt under the whips of scorpions. A voice 
is heard, "Let my people go !" The night of the Pass- 
over is at hand. In every home of Israel a lamb is slain 
and blood sprinkled upon the lintels of the doors. Out 
into the wilderness they go, a horde of fugitive 
slaves, following the red trail of the great Mystery. 
They pause under the shadow of Sinai long enough to 
be constituted into a nation. Here they receive the 
Moral Law, around which gathers the entire ritual 
of the Ceremonial Law. 

The nation is to be known as a theocracy, be- 
cause its only King is God. Its constitution is 
written in a Book, given by divine authority, and 
characterized as the Word of God. Its center is the 
Tabernacle, built after the pattern shown in the 



i 4 2 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

mount, to be known thenceforth as the House of 
God. The multitudinous rites and ordinances, fasts, 
festivals, ablutions, sacrifices all alike contribute to 
the worship of God. Priests are set apart to minister 
at the altar and Levites to wait upon them ; prophets 
are ordained to teach and scribes to cooperate with 
them in the ministry of the Word; all these are min- 
isters of God. 

If we would find the living center of this elaborate 
system, we must visit the Tabernacle. Before it stands 
a brazen altar ever streaming with blood. On enter- 
ing we perceive that, for some reason, everything is 
sprinkled with blood: the laver, the golden candle- 
stick, the table of shewbread, the golden altar of 
incense, posts, curtains, almond blossoms, all are 
marked with the crimson stain. Here we finish our 
quest: a curtain of fine-twined linen hangs before 
the Holy of Holies ; and within is the Mystery. None 
may enter there but the High Priest, and he "not 
without blood." On the great Day of Atonement 
he enters, his hands filled with blood from the brazen 
altar, with which he sprinkles the golden cover of the 
Ark, and, bowing there in solitude and silence, he 
makes atonement for the people's sins. What is the 
meaning of all this? Is it a senseless show? or is 
this a schoolmaster leading to Christ? Here in the 
Holy of Holies, beside the ark of the covenant with 
its unbroken tables of the law, its pot of manna and 
budded rod of life, we feel the very pulsing of the 
heart of that Mystery of Godliness which, from the 
gateway of paradise, has been unfolding year by year 
and century by century, that in the fulness of time the 



THE CEREMONIAL LAW 143 

sinful world might be prepared to welcome the Larnb 
of God. 

As the children of Israel leave the wilderness 
for the settled life of Canaan we shall see the 
prophets wheeling into line and hear them speak- 
ing with increasing clearness of the coming of 
Messiah. This is the Hope of Israel. The figure of 
the Coming One is more and more definitely outlined 
as Priest, Prophet and King; Son of Man, Son of 
God ; offspring of a virgin ; man of sorrows, wounded 
and bruised, bearing the chastisement of our sins. 
But again the sad story of blindness and wandering. 
A voice is heard, "Who hath believed our report ; and 
to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ?" The lights 
die out. The candles of the sanctuary are extin- 
guished. There is no longer any open vision. The 
last of the old line of prophets stands in the twilight 
of the four hundred years preceding the Advent, wav- 
ing his torch and crying, "The Sun of Righteousness 
shall arise with healing in his wings!" (Mai. 4, 2). 

IV. The Denouement. At length the fulness of 
time has come. The Mystery of Godliness is to be 
made known. The day breaks and the shadows flee 
away. On the hillsides the angels are singing, "Glory 
to God in the highest; on earth peace, good will 
toward men." By the bank of Jordan the Christ is 
walking; of whom John says, "Behold, the Lamb of 
God, that taketh away the sin of the world!" He 
is come to declare the Mystery; and, so doing, he 
will make clear his relation to the Ceremonial Law. 

His word is, "I am come not to destroy the Law 
but to fulfil it." It is difficult to see how any one 
could suppose that Jesus came to destroy the Law. 



i44 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

He was ever a loyal Jew. In his infancy he was 
subjected to the customary rites. In his boyhood he 
honored the Temple as his "Father's House." He 
never broke with Judaism. He was most scrupulous 
to cast no reflection upon it. He bowed to the baptism 
of John, saying, "Thus it becometh us to fulfil all 
righteousness" (Matt. 3, 13). He kept the prescribed 
feasts and festivals. He paid tribute money (Matt. 
17, 24-27). He honored the hierarchy, as when he 
required the lepers to go show themselves to the priests 
(Luke 17, 14). He assented to the importance of 
bringing gifts to the altar (Matt. 5, 23. 24). In every 
way he treated the law as holy, just and good. 

"He came to fulfil it." How so ? First : By mak- 
ing known its real significance. This involved the 
putting forward of himself as its comprehensive anti- 
type. At the outset of his ministry, in his conversa- 
tion with Nicodemus, he declared that he himself was 
the revelation of the Mystery of Godliness, since 
there could be no return to God except by faith in 
him. And the purport of his teaching was ever the 
same. It reached its consummation on the cross. At 
the moment when he cried, "It is finished!" the 
priest who was ministering in the Temple near by, 
it being the hour of the evening sacrifice, saw the veil 
before the Holiest of All rent in sunder from the top 
to the bottom as if by a hand stretched down from 
heaven. Thus the Mystery was revealed, at last; so 
that not the High Priest only, but all alike "have 
boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of 
Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath con- 
secrated for us" (Heb. 10, 1-22). 

He came to fulfil the Law 2 secondly, by supersede 



THE CEREMONIAL LAW i 4S 

ing it. The gospel is not merely to be added to the 
observances of the Ceremonial Law, as the Judaizers 
contended in apostolic times. Faith does not go 
hand in hand with ritualism, but supplants it. This 
was Christ's meaning when he said, "No man putteth 
a piece of new cloth into an old garment; else the 
rent is made worse. Neither do men put new wine 
into old bottles, else the bottles break, and the wine 
runneth out" (Matt. 9, 16. 17). This is not to dis- 
parage the old garments or the old bottles; they 
served their important uses. But the schoolboy leaves 
his alphabet as he passes on into literature. The 
shadows flee at break of day. 

It is a significant fact that of all the rites and cere- 
monies of the Old Economy our Lord kept but two 
simple memorials: All washings and ablutions and 
ceremonies by water are gathered up and preserved 
in Baptism, which, as the initiatory rite of the Christian 
Church, sets forth the washing away of sin. And the 
deep significance of all sacrifices, — sin-offerings, burnt 
offerings, and peace-offerings, — is preserved in the 
Lord's Supper, in which we set forth Christ as our 
Passover, offered once for all. We are, however, con- 
stantly tempted to return to the old shadow-life of 
ritualism. We are not content with the simplicity of 
our two sacraments. We must needs amplify our 
liturgies. We call for the uplifted Mass, for bowings 
and genuflections, for candles on the altar. It is so 
much easier to kill a lamb than it is to slay a darling 
sin. It is so much more impressive to wear frontlets 
betwixt the eyes and make broad the phylacteries 
than to have simple faith in the Lamb of God. But 
the word of the Master is very clear. The contest 



146 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

betwixt liturgies is naught; faith is all. "The hour 
cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor 
yet a Jerusalem, worship the Father; for God is a 
Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him 
in spirit and in truth" (John 4, 21-25). 

And Christ fulfilled the Ceremonial Law, thirdly, 
by universalizing it. He did indeed say that "salva- 
tion is of the Jews;" but he carried that message of 
salvation up into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon and 
the regions beyond. He reminded the people of God's 
mercy to Naaman and the widow of Sarepta. He 
denounced those who called themselves children of 
Abraham to the exclusion of others from the hope of 
salvation. When he died, his hands were stretched 
out, as if to say, "Look unto me all ye ends of the 
earth and be ye saved!" And when he returned to 
plan the campaign of the kingdom, his word to his 
disciples was, "Go ye into all the world and preach 
the gospel to every creature." Thus, in Christ there 
is "neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncir- 
cumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free." 
Room is made for all sorts and conditions of men. 

It is evident, therefore, that the Mystery of Godli- 
ness, that is, the Plan of Salvation, elaborated and 
developed in Judaism, is fully revealed in the gospel 
of Christ. The Ceremonial Law is not to be thrown 
away as useless; since it is the very alphabet of the 
literature of grace. The fathers were wont to say, 
Vetus Testamentum in Novo patet; Novum Testa- 
mentum in Vet ere latet; that is, by liberal interpreta- 
tion, the Mystery of Godliness was dimly seen in the 
rites and ceremonies of Israel, as the shepherd in the 
Canticles is said to have looked forth from behind 



THE CEREMONIAL LAW 147 

the lattice on the Shulamite maid. It is true there 
was no salvation in those ordinances ; for "Not all the 
blood of beasts, on Jewish altars slain, could give the 
guilty conscience peace, or take away its stain"; but 
the law ever pointed to Christ. So Paul says, "What 
the law could not do, in that it was weak through the 
flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of 
sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; 
that the righteousness of the law might be ful- 
filled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after 
the spirit" (Ro. 8, 3. 4). Thank God for the revela- 
tion of the Mystery ! Thank God for the schoolmaster 
that has led the world to his beloved Son ! Let us live 
as the children of the light ; since we walk not among 
the shadows but in the clear light of day. 



XII 
THE HOME 



XII 

THE HOME 

The unit of society is the family. No country or 
community is better than its domestic life. The fall 
of the Roman Empire was due to the decay of its 
homes. It is an old story how Napoleon, on being 
asked what was needed to restore the prestige of 
France, answered, "Mothers." The eighteenth cen- 
tury marked the lowest ebb of Anglo-Saxon life ; and 
this was the golden age of the public-house. Dr. 
Johnson said, "A chair in the tavern is the throne of 
human felicity." Wits and geniuses, rulers and dig- 
nitaries met in the tap-room to discuss public affairs. 
The result was inevitable. It is a sad omen for any 
community when its inns or clubs are preferred to 
its domestic firesides. God setteth the solitary in 
families. God made the household; man makes the 
club. The home is the true center from which the 
leaven of virtue permeates the lump of universal 
life. 

We are not surprised, therefore, to find Jesus, in 
his doctrine, placing a deep emphasis on the importance 
of the home-life. His purpose was to regenerate so- 
ciety, in order that the world might be brought back 
to truth and righteousness. Therefore he begins at 
the center of things. 

(149) 



ISO THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

I. The fundamental fact in any just consideration 
of domestic life is the Sanctity of Wedlock. We some- 
times raise the question, "Is marriage a failure ?" God 
forbid ! For that would mean the failure of the whole 
social order. But the question must needs have been 
answered in the affirmative at the advent of Christ. 
Marriage was then regarded as a contract, which 
might be dissolved by mutual consent, or more com- 
monly by the husband's will. 

Not a few of the philosophers of Greece made 
light of wedlock and applauded marital infidelity. In 
Rome the sacred union was held in even greater con- 
tempt. Seneca says that the women of his time counted 
their years not by the succession of consuls but of their 
husbands. Juvenal says, "It is not an uncommon 
thing for couples to be divorced before the nuptial 
garlands have faded." Temples were dedicated to 
impurity. Infanticide was so common that it was not 
regarded as a crime. The avoidance of wedlock grew 
to be so general that in the reign of Augustus it was 
found necessary to impose fines for celibacy. The 
social status of the empire at this time is darkly pic- 
tured in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, 
Nor were the Jews free from the prevailing im- 
morality, as Christ intimates in his reference to the 
Mosaic prescript (Matt. 19, 7-9). 

At the outset of our Lord's ministry he went down 
to the marriage at Cana, as if to manifest his approval 
of the nuptials. His turning of the water into wine on 
that occasion was a rare sort of congratulation, an 
expression of desire that the parties to the covenant 
might find the pleasure of life in halving their sorrows 
and doubling their joys. 



THE HOME 151 

He, moreover, set his seal upon wedlock as a divine 
ordinance when he said, "What God hath joined to- 
gether" (Matt. 19, 6). This is not to affirm that 
marriage is a sacrament; since it is coeval with the 
history of man. In passing, let it be noted as a 
statistical fact that in countries where marriage has 
been regarded as a sacrament, such as Spain, Italy, 
Austria and Mexico, there has always been a lamenta- 
ble avoidance of wedlock and preference for bare- 
faced vice. But while Jesus placed no sacramental 
barriers around the nuptial altar, he taught that it is 
vastly more than a civil contract. He gave it pre- 
cedence of all the other relations of life, saying, "For 
this cause shall a man leave father and mother and 
cleave to his wife" (Matt. 19, 5). 

And, further, our Lord taught that wedlock, thus 
divinely sealed, is indissoluble; saying, "What there- 
fore God hath joined together let not man put asunder" 
(Matt. 19, 6). The rival schools of Hillel and Sham- 
mai were agreed that the parties to the marital covenant 
could be separated by a writ of divorcement, but they 
differed as to the ground of divorce. Hillel held that 
the bond was so loose and flexible that if a wife burnt 
her husband's food while cooking it, he was justified 
in procuring a writ of divorcement from her. Jesus 
said there is one and only one valid ground of divorce ; 
to wit, the crime which, in the necessity of the case, 
leaves "the guilty as dead, and the innocent as free." 

It is well for us to ponder these teachings of Christ 
in view of the alarming prevalence of divorce in our 
time. It is an ominous fact that divorce is more than 
thirty times as frequent in our own country as in 
Great Britain. In the different States of our Union 



152 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

there are forty-six specified grounds of legal separa- 
tion. There is surely something wrong when a man 
can be pronounced a husband in one State and a 
bachelor in another. This is reducing a serious matter 
to the level of a farce; and in the course of time we 
are bound to pay the penalty of it. 

II. Our Lord, having thus laid the foundation of 
his teaching with reference to the ethics of domestic 
life in a clear statement concerning its fundamental 
fact, proceeds to speak with great clearness by precept 
and example, as to its Sanctions and Safeguards. 

We have a few brief but significant glimpses into 
the home at Nazareth. It is said that when Jesus re- 
turned with his parents from Jerusalem, whither he 
had gone at the age of twelve to discharge his duty as 
"a Son of the Law," he was "subject unto them" 
(Luke 2, 51). We may think of him as running on 
helpful errands for his mother. Tissot paints him, 
pitcher in hand, going for water to the well. — It is 
recorded also that he was called "the carpenter's son" ; 
and there is reason to believe that he was himself an 
apprentice in the shop. Justin Martyr speaks of him 
as "a worker of wood" and as "making ploughs and 
yokes for the neighboring farmers." There is reason 
to believe that, on the death of Joseph, he assumed his 
place as breadwinner for the family. — And we have 
still another glimpse into the home at Nazareth in the 
statement that Mary "kept all these things and pon- 
dered them in her heart" (Luke 2, 19). Here is a 
reference to "a mother's secret," shared with her divine 
son. It was the secret of his divine birth and mission, 
which must ever have been a sanctifying influence in 
this family circle. 



THE HOME 153 

As to the Rights of Parents, our Lord speaks with 
no uncertain sound. The Jews of his time were taught 
that in order to relieve themselves of supporting their 
aged parents, they needed but to utter the cabalistic 
word, "Corban!" which meant that their possessions 
were "consecrated to God." Jesus comments on this 
custom as follows: "Full well ye reject the com- 
mandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradi- 
tion. For Moses said, Honor thy father and thy 
mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let 
him die the death. But ye say, If a man shall say to 
his father, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by what- 
soever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be 
free. And ye suffer him no more to do aught for his 
father or his mother; making the word of God of 
none effect through your tradition" (Mark 7, 9-13). 

His regard for the Fifth Commandment is shown 
not only by his stern disapproval of the use of Corban 
as a cloak for unfilial conduct, but by his own attitude 
toward his parents. It is true that at the marriage in 
Cana, where his mother obtruded her counsel, he an- 
swered, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" but 
there was no disrespect in his use of the term 
"Woman" ; nor more of reproof in his words than was 
required by the fact that he had now reached the 
parting of the ways, where his divine nature and work 
must take precedence of all earthly ties. And that 
Mary so understood him is evident from her counsel 
to the attendants, "Whatsoever he saith unto you, 
do it." In order to a clear understanding of this 
episode, which occurred at the beginning of his minis- 
try, we must consider another which happened at its 
close. In the passion of Calvary, when his great heart 



154 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

was breaking under its burden of vicarious pain, Jesus, 
the breadwinner, mindful of his mother's approaching 
need, committed her to the care of his beloved disciple, 
saying, "Woman, behold thy son." If would appear 
that filial love and reverence could no further go. 

Our Lord has somewhat to say, also, of the Rights 
of Children; and here he stands alone among the 
great teachers of the world. At the time of his ad- 
vent, under the Law of the Twelve Tables a father 
had power of life and death over his offspring. A 
weak and sickly child might be abandoned to death; 
and this was approved by such eminent authorities as 
Plato and Aristotle. The little people were, indeed, 
beyond the pale of the law; but Christ opened his 
arms to them. Where shall we find in the sacred books 
of Pagandom such words as these: "Suffer the little 
children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of 
such is the kingdom of God'' (Mark 10, 14-16)? 
Or these: "See that ye despise not one of these little 
ones; for in heaven their angels do always behold 
the face of my Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 18, 
10)? Or these: "Whoso shall receive one of these 
little ones receiveth me" (Matt. 18, 5) ? It is in pur- 
suance of such teachings, enlarging the scope of even 
the Abrahamic Covenant, that the children of Chris- 
tian households are, by baptism or otherwise, conse- 
crated to God. 

And then as to the Rights of Strangers. It is to be 
lamented that the ancient custom of hospitality has 
been well-nigh forgotten in our time. We farm out 
our care of the poor to charitable organizations and 
reserve the home-welcome for those Vho have other 
claims upon us. Jesus said, "When thou makest 3 



THE HOME 155 

dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy breth- 
ren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors ; lest 
they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made 
thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, 
the maimed, the lame, the blind; and thou shall be 
blessed" (Luke 14, 12-14). — On sending out the Sev- 
enty upon their tour of evangelization, he commended 
them to the hospitality of the people to whom they 
carried the message of peace. — He reproved his host, 
Simon the Pharisee, for his scant courtesy, saying, 
"I entered into thy house; thou gavest me no water 
for my feet; thou gavest me no kiss; my head with 
oil thou didst not anoint" (Luke 7, 43-46). — And he 
taught his disciples that in the Day of Reckoning the 
King would say, "I was an hungered, and ye gave me 
meat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave me to drink ; I was 
a stranger, and ye took me in. For, inasmuch as ye 
have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, 
ye have done it unto me" (Matt. 25, 35-39). 

It remains to speak of our Lord's teaching with 
respect to Domestic Piety. The Jewish homes were 
known for their devoutness and are thus known to 
this day. It devolved upon the head of every family 
to instruct his household in the Scriptures: "Thou 
shall teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt 
talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and 
when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest 
down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind 
them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as 
frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write 
them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates" 
(Deut. 6, 6-9). We have reason to know that Jesus 
was thus instructed in his youth. By his familiarity 



i 5 6 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

with the Scriptures he was competent to reason with 
the doctors in the temple at twelve years of age. He 
was able, when tempted in the wilderness, to meet his 
adversary with strong defenses from the Word of 
God. In the synagogue at Nazareth when the scroll 
of Isaiah was handed him, he found no difficulty in 
discoursing on the lesson of the day. So familiar was 
he with the Oracles that he needed no parchment 
when, walking with his disciples on the way down to 
Emmaus, he, "beginning at Moses and all the prophets, 
expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things 
concerning himself ' (Luke 24, 27). 

A place for secret prayer was to be found in every 
Jewish home, a room set apart for private devotion; 
so that Jesus was speaking along the line of common 
custom when he said, "Thou, when thou prayest, enter 
into thy closet; and, when thou hast shut thy door, 
pray to thy Father which is in secret ; and thy Father, 
which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly" (Matt. 
6,6). 

The family altar was another institution in the 
home of every loyal Jew. On the wilderness journey 
there was no tent without it. The Law was read 
there, prayer was offered and the household joined in 
sacred song. This custom was continued in the house- 
holds of the early Christians. One of their hymns, 
known as the "Candle Hymn," has been preserved: 

*' O joyous light of heavenly glory, 
Of the Father Eternal, Jesus the Christ ! 
We, having come to the setting of the sun 
And beholding the evening light, 
Give praise to the Father and the Son 
And the Spirit, three in One. 



THE HOME 157 

Thou art worthy of praise 
At all times and with holy voices, 
O Son of God, who givest life ! 
Wherefore, the world praiseth Thee." 

In the life and teaching of Jesus we shall find a 
light thrown upon the relation of the household to 
the public school. At that time the village schools 
were taught by the rabbis; and their pupils, among 
whom doubtless was Jesus, sat around the teacher in 
a semicircle, conning their lessons from the sacred 
scroll. For up to ten years of age the only 
text-book used was the Scriptures. The pupils com- 
mitted to memory the Law, the story of the Passover, 
many of the Prophecies, the acrostic Psalms and other 
considerable portions of the Word. "It is safe to say 
that Jesus, ever loyal to the Scriptures, would not ap- 
prove their exclusion from the curriculum of our pub- 
lic schools. In this we have made a desperate con- 
cession to the enemies of truth. It is a singular fact, 
that whereas the Bible was the one book in the Rab- 
binical schools, it is the one book excluded from ours. 
Let this be considered in connection with the fact that 
the Bible is on all sides conceded to be the pre- 
eminent masterpiece of the literature of all ages. Web- 
ster said, "I have learned eloquence from it." Milton 
said, "There is no poetry like the songs of Zion." 
Bacon said, "The soundest philosophy is here." Yet 
we have decreed that our children in the course of their 
education shall not study it! 

We find, still further, in Christ's life and teaching 
an important suggestion as to the relation of the home 
to the sanctuary. He went once and again to the 
synagogue "as his custom was." At ten years of 



158 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

age, on becoming a "Son of the Law/' he journeyed 
to Jerusalem to honor the Temple. To him the Sab- 
bath was not a day of indolent rest, but of rest in the 
love, worship and service of God. 

It has been remarked that the family is the unit of 
social life ; let us go further now, and say that, in the 
philosophy of Jesus, the family is the unit of Church- 
membership. He honored the covenant which God 
made "with Abraham and his seed after him." It is 
a notable fact, as indicating the mind of Jesus, that the 
Church was organized in an upper room in the house 
of Mary of Jerusalem. The outpouring of the Spirit 
at Pentecost came upon the disciples while they were 
assembled in the open court of another home. The 
Churches which were organized by the apostles were 
Churches in the house; there was "the Church in the 
house of Nymphas," "the Church in the house of 
Philemon," "the Church in the house of Aquila and 
Priscilla." This is not to say that our Lord does not 
approve of the public sanctuary; but it makes clear 
the close relation which subsists between the home 
and the Church. 

And the Church Triumphant will be the Church 
in our Father's house. The vital relation of the 
Church and the household will be realized there. Our 
Lord has long been wedded to his bride; but the 
nuptials are postponed until she shall be presented 
to him without spot or blemish or any such thing, 
Then will come the Marriage Supper of the Lamb; 
where the children of this sacred union will gather 
from every nation and people and kindred and tribe 
to praise him. They will sit around the sacramental 
table, and he will drink the new wine with them in 



THE HOME 159 

his kingdom. It was intimated by Isaiah that Christ 
should be reproached as a childless man : "Who shall 
declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the 
land of the living. ,, But in that day it shall be seen 
that his children have sprung up as willows by the 
water-courses. "He shall see his seed, he shall pro- 
long his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall 
prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his 
soul and shall be satisfied" (Isa. 53, 8-10). 

One word as to practical duty. The beginning of 
Christian influence is in the innermost of the con- 
centric circles of life. To the dispossessed demoniac 
of Gadara, who wished to follow Jesus on his itinerary 
of service, he said, "Go home to thy friends and show 
what great things the Lord hath done for thee" (Mark 
5, 19). It behooves the true Christian ever to show 
piety at home. No man is a genuine follower of Jesus 
who does not let his light so shine before members of 
his own family circle that they, seeing his sincerq 
devotion, may be led to glorify God. 



XIII 
THE LABOR PROBLEM 



XIII 
THE LABOR PROBLEM 

It is frequently said that the church of our time 
has lost its grip on the working class. The statement 
is far too sweeping ; But whatever of truth it contains, 
is measured by the extent to which the church, ever 
or anywhere, turns aside from the word and example 
of her Lord. He was no respecter of persons; his 
heart overflowed with love for all sorts and conditions 
of men. 

A cardinal, arrayed in rich canonicals, passing 
through the gateway of St. Peter's in company with 
a barefoot friar, amid the dazzling pomp and circum- 
stance of a holy festival, was moved to exclaim, "The 
time has passed when the church must needs say like 
Peter of old, 'Silver and gold have I none.' " To 
which the friar answered, "Ave; and, by the same 
token, holy father, the time has passed when the 
church can say to the cripple in the gate, 'In the name 
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk V ' 

If it be true that multitudes of the laboring people 
are alienated from the church, it does not follow there- 
from that they are alienated from Christ. Nay, all 
that is necessary in order that the church may set her- 
self right with these people, is that she shall get back 
to Christ, who was ever known as the Friend of the 
workingman. 

<i6i) 



i62 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

At the beginning of the Christian Era, the social 
fabric was everywhere at loose ends. The sover- 
eignty of Rome had overspread the world ; and in that 
Empire there were three classes of people : 

First, the Patricians, who lived in luxurious ease. 
Pliny says that he saw Lollia Paulina arrayed for a 
feast in finery that cost forty millions of sesterces or 
something more than two millions of our money. 
Sabina, the wife of Nero, took with her, when journey- 
ing, five hundred she-asses to furnish milk for her cos- 
metic baths ; and they were shod with gold and silver. 
It was not counted an extraordinary thing to spend 
the revenues of an entire province on a banquet in 
those days. The tables were furnished with brains of 
peacocks, tongues of nightingales and similar delica- 
cies. Thus it will be seen that the Patricians rolled 
in wealth. But they were an insignificant part of the 
population, numbering only two thousand in the city 
of Rome. 

Second, the Slaves. They lived in ergastula, or 
slave-stables, where they were oftentimes chained in 
their stalls. In old age they were exposed to death 
on an island in the Tiber. They had no rights which 
their superiors were bound to respect. Of these les 
miserables there were one million five hundred thou- 
sand in the Imperial City. 

Third, the Plebeians ; an idle, shiftless class. They 
formed the bulk of the Roman citizenship. To their 
minds it was not respectable to work, that being the 
business of slaves. Their cry was ever, "Panem et 
circenses," Bread and games ! There were forty-four 
thousand of them in Rome who received congiaria, or 
corn-rations. They spent their forenoons lounging 



THE LABOR PROBLEM 163 

about the Forum and their afternoons at the Amphi- 
theatre, where the gladiatorial contests took place, 
pompa diaboli. The Emperor Trajan had eleven 
thousand wild beasts brought into the arena at one 
festival. While the Plebeians sat witnessing these 
games, their patrons from above threw figs and fruits 
to them. At the conclusion of the games they re- 
paired for the night to their wretched homes, which, 
in respect to comfort, were incomparably beneath the 
tenement houses of these days. As a rule a Plebeian 
wore only a tunic, having but a single garment to 
his name; if fortunately he possessed a toga, he kept 
it to be buried in. 

Where, then, was the thrifty middle class ; the class 
that constitutes the bone and sinew of our modern 
civilization? There was none. Patricians and Ple- 
beians alike lived in gentlemanly leisure, remanding 
all labor to the slaves. 

Then came the Man of Nazareth, and this inno- 
vator has "turned the world upside down." It was 
indeed necessary that society as then existing should 
be turned upside down, else it could never be right 
side up. Jesus was a social reformer. As a man of 
the people, he had a heart that was in sympathy with 
them : and his life and teaching were addressed to the 
betterment of their conditions here and hereafter. It is 
now nineteen hundred years since his advent. The 
ripening of his glorious purpose has been slow but 
sure. "The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind 
exceeding small." We look back over the centuries 
and are able to estimate what Christ has done for the 
people. A very different order of things prevails at 
this day. The noblest of Roman epics begins with the 



i6 4 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

words, "Arma virumque cano;" on which Thomas 
Carlyle remarks, "The epic of our times is not 'Arms 
and the man' but Tools and the man I sing.' " The 
great problems are not being wrought out on the bat- 
tlefield, but in the great centers of industry. The best 
men of to-day are the producers, such as by brain- 
craft or handicraft add to the material and spiritual 
possessions of the children of men. 

Our purpose is to note with some particularity 
what the influence of Christ and the religion which he 
has instituted has been upon the welfare of the work- 
ing class. 

I. To begin with, it has Leveled up the Race. I 
say, leveled up; because the tendency of other forces 
having to do with social and industrial problems has 
been to level down. The cry is, "Down with wealth ! 
Down with noble birth and culture! Down with the 
aristocracy !" But the watchword of the Gospel is, 
"Up with the people!" It was the purpose of Christ 
to vindicate the importance of man as man. Adventi- 
tious conditions were nothing to him. He loved man 
as made in the likeness of God. 

The general principle on which this proposition 
rests was expressed by Jesus, in briefest terms, in the 
words, "Our Father." The divine Fatherhood lies 
at the basis of the true philosophy of human rights; 
one man is as good as another because there is "one 
God and Father of all." 

If we trace the influence of those significant 
words, "Our Father," along the bright pathway of 
history, we shall presently come to Mars' Hill, where 
the Apostle Paul is saying, "God hath made of one 
blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face 



THE LABOR PROBLEM 165 

of the earth." If we follow on, we shall reach the 
meadow at Runnymede, where the barons are extort- 
ing from John Lackland their rights in the body pol- 
itic : but in Magna Charta we shall find as yet no men- 
tion of the people and no reference to the laborer, 
save in a brief stipulation that he may not be deprived 
of the implements of his trade. If we follow still 
further, we shall come to the Reformation, with its 
manifesto of religious rights; and if further still, we 
shall hear Independence Bell ringing out the proclama- 
tion, "All men are created equal and with certain in- 
alienable rights !" And if we continue, with prophetic 
eyes, to follow the guidance of those words, "Our 
Father," to their logical conclusion, we shall find our- 
selves at the Golden Age, "when man to man, tha 
whole world o'er, shall brothers be." 

II. The Gospel of Jesus Christ has also Dignified 
Labor. And what other religion or philosophy has 
done so? Plato, Cicero, Lycurgus held that it was a 
disgrace to touch the implements of manual toil. 

It is a matter of immense import that Jesus was 
himself a workingman. Too long has he been repre- 
sented as crowned with a halo of light. He was a 
handicraftsman ; a member of the Third Estate. The 
coign of vantage in the preaching of his gospel is the 
carpenter-shop at Nazareth. Here is the pulpit from 
which the Church will yet win the people. It is 
worth asking whether we should not have made bet- 
ter progress in the propagation of the gospel had we 
never invented the luminous halo for our Lord but 
left him wearing the square cap of the carpenter. He 
was indeed "very God of very God"; but before the 



166 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

world shall so recognize him, it must know him dis- 
tinctly as "very Man of very Man." 

The appeal of Jesus was to the people ; to the toil- 
ing, struggling, burden-bearing people. His words, 
"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, 
and I will give you rest" (Matt, n, 28), are too often 
understood as referring exclusively to those who are 
spiritually cast down. The greater includes the less. 

The heart of Jesus went out to the masses, to the 
great body of producers, who, by sweat of brain and 
brawn, are ever enriching the world. Observe how 
his preaching is enriched with industrial figures; of 
nets and boats, sowing, fertilizing and reaping, mills 
and markets and tolbooths, shepherds, housekeepers, 
architects, vinedressers and other sorts of handicrafts- 
men. 

At the outset of his ministry he gathered about 
him a cabinet of twelve men, all of whom were de- 
voted to braincraft or handicraft. There was not 
among them a single gentleman of leisure. In view 
of such conditions it is not surprising to learn that 
the great multitude of believers in the early church 
were from among the working class. On the one 
hand, "not many mighty, not many noble were 
called" ; and on the other, there was little in the new 
religion to attract the indolent, since one of its funda- 
mental precepts was, "If any man will not work, neith- 
er let him eat." And the church has ever since been 
recruited from the same source. Luther was a min- 
er's son; Zwingli was a shepherd; Cardinal Wolsey 
was a butcher's apprentice ; John Bunyan was a tink- 
er; William Carey a shoemaker; Jeremy Taylor a 
barber ; David Livingstone a weaver. Thus wherever 



THE LABOR PROBLEM 167 

the genius of Christ's gospel has prevailed, a special 
honor has been put upon the children of toil. 

III. The religion of Christ has Bettered the Ma- 
terial Condition of the Working Classes. He laid down 
this proposition : "The laborer is worthy of his hire" 
(Lu. 10,7). 

The principle of an honest wage seems to us very 
commonplace in this day ; but it should be noted that 
as formulated by Jesus it was in the nature of a revo- 
lutionary idea. At that time there was nowhere in the 
world a formal recognition of the wage. The work- 
ing classes lived on charity, or a dole sufficient for the 
sustenance of life. The despicable custom of giving 
a douceur to waiters in our restaurants is a remnant 
of the pagan custom. The pyramids were built by 
laborers who lived on onions and lentils measured out 
to them by overseers who never dreamed of paying 
them an equivalent for their industry and skill. A 
quid pro quo, that is, an honest wage for an honest 
task, was, so far as custom went, as yet undreamed of. 

But as time passed and the philosophy of Jesus 
began to take hold upon the universal heart and con- 
science, it was conceded that the laborer was worthy 
of something beyond a livelihood; he was entitled to 
an adequate return for his service. The improve- 
ment in the condition of the toiling class was gradual 
but sure. Age-buttressed evils are not leveled in a 
day. As late as the thirteenth century a carpenter in 
England received but threepence per day. In the 
fourteenth century the hours of labor were from five 
in the morning until half-past seven in the evening, 
and a workman was not permitted to change masters 
without a six months' warning. In the time of 



168 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

Charles II a weaver received sixpence for a day's 
work; but the times gave evidence of progress in a 
growing discontent. Macaulay speaks of a ballad 
circulated at this period, in which the weavers de- 
plored their sixpence and plead for a shilling a day. 
Verily the world has been moving since then. John 
Stuart Mill says that the handicraftsmen of our times 
receive more pay per annum than professional men; 
and there is no more self-respecting class than the 
hand-workers. 

"The heart of the toiler has throbbings 
That stir not the bosom of kings." 

And this is affirmed to be the immediate result of 
Christian influence. Let the doubter consult a map 
of the world. Let him observe that China is a land of 
mandarins and coolies; that Egypt is a land of rich 
men and beggars ; that Turkey is a land of pashas and 
slaves. In what nation outside of Christendom is 
labor regarded with honor or the laborer permitted 
to be a self-respecting man? 

If, on the other hand, we are reminded of the dis- 
content which prevails among laboring people in 
Christian countries, of the strikes and processions of 
strikers marching through our streets with banners 
bearing. the legends of their discontent, let it be re- 
membered that these very expressions of desire to im- 
prove their condition are an evidence of the influence 
of the gospel. Who ever heard of a procession of dis- 
contented toilers marching through the streets of the 
Oriental cities of the olden time ? The right of protest 
is one of the rights which Christianity has vindicated 
smong men. 



THE LABOR PROBLEM 169 

IV. The religion of Jesus Christ makes it pos- 
sible for the so-called Lower Classes to Rise. The sug- 
gestion of this possibility is found in his words, "Fol- 
low me, and I will make you fishers of men" (Matt. 
4, 19). The persons whom Jesus thus addressed were 
engaged in a menial task; the position to which he 
called them was the highest which can be attained by 
mortal men. 

A problem current at the time of the advent was, 
"Ne sutor ultra crepidam" — "Let the shoemaker stick- 
to his last." But under the influence of the Nazarene 
Carpenter the shoemaker is permitted to rise above 
his last. In pagan nations the various classes must 
keep their place. The Hindus say that when Brahm 
created the race he made Brahmans from his head, 
the Kshatrya or soldiers from his breast, the Vaisya 
or merchants from his loins, and the Sudras or labor- 
ers from his feet; and within these lines there are 
hundreds of minor divisional lines which have re- 
mained from time immemorial and which it is quite 
impossible to cross. The water-carriers and scaven- 
gers of Bombay are the descendants of those who were 
scavengers and water-carriers many hundreds of 
years ago. But in Christian countries a golden lad- 
der is placed before the feet of every ambitious man 
and he is urged to mount it. 

We often lament the multiplication of millionaires 
in our time. It is indeed a most significant fact. A 
tabulated estimate shows that there are thousands of 
millionaires in our country; about one thousand of 
them in the city of New York. But why should we 
mourn over this condition of things? Rather let us 
rejoice in it. For who are these that have accumu- 



i?o THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

lated wealth? Nearly all have come up from the 
ranks; they were poor men or the children of poor 
men. The thing which hath been shall be. Men are 
continually rising from poverty to affluence. It is 
dangerous for a laboring man to cry out against capi- 
tal ; since there is no certainty that he himself may not 
be a capitalist one of these days. It is a significant 
fact — significant of the progress of Christ's gospel, — 
that no man, however humble, need despair of pros- 
perity, if he be a thrifty workman. In Christian coun- 
tries there is always "room at the top." 

What shall we then say to these things? The re- 
ligion which has accomplished so much can be trusted 
to accomplish more. The rights of the honest toiler 
are safe in the hands of the Carpenter of Nazareth. 
If his religion cannot bring about the adjustment of 
the relations between employer and employee, what 
force or philosophy shall accomplish it? 

A godless anarchy tried its hand on this problem 
in the Reign of Terror. It wrote upon the Church 
doors and dead walls of Paris, the legend, "Liberty, 
Equality, Fraternity." It raved and clamored and 
fought until the gutters ran with blood; and with 
what result? The French peasant wears his smock- 
frock and wooden sabots to-day. 

Or is it likely that socialism or communism will 
bring about the consummation so devoutly to be 
wished? Their achievements, thus far, encourage no 
hope. The workingman himself has little confidence 
in them. Now and again they have disturbed the cur- 
rent of social life ; but the disturbance has been a mere 
momentary eddy in the waters; and the turbid river 
has flowed right on. 



THE LABOR PROBLEM 171 

But the mediation of Jesus is destined to solve the 
labor question and all the other troubled problems of 
social life. The fundamental fact in the philosophy 
of Adam Smith is thus stated: "A prudent self-in- 
terest is the sufficient basis of economic science." In 
the teaching of Jesus the exact opposite is set forth; 
to wit, A just consideration of the rights of others 
is the very beginning and end of true social economy. 
The divine norm or fundamental fact is by him ex- 
pressed in the Golden Rule: "Therefore all things 
whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye 
even so to them." 



XIV 
CIVIL GOVERNMENT 



XIV 

CIVIL GOVERNMENT 

The teaching of Jesus was so distinctly a departure 
from the existing order that it was practically a new 
religion ; as such it must be adjusted to all the relations 
of life. It is not enough that the true religion should 
set forth a single truth, however important, or even a 
considerable group of important truths; it must pre- 
sent such a comprehensive system of truth as will meet 
all the exigencies of human experience. It must ex- 
press itself in the terms of Pascal's Law of Hydrau- 
lics; to wit, "Any pressure exerted on the mass is 
transmitted equably in all directions." The true re- 
ligion must be an educating force in the entire encyclo- 
paedia of morals. We have reason to expect, therefore, 
of the Gospel, that it will, in its universal application, 
touch helpfully upon the duties and responsibilities of 
civil life. 

It is our present purpose to inquire as to the teach- 
ing of Jesus on the Relation of the Ecclesiastical to 
the Civil Power. It will serve our convenience to 
classify the tenor of his doctrine under a few particular 
sayings. 

The first of these is his prayer for those who cru- 
cified him : "Father, forgive them, for they know not 
what they do." 

Let it be observed that the death of Jesus was 

(173) 



i74 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

wholly voluntary. He said, "I lay down my life, that I 
might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I 
lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, 
and I have power to take it again" (John 10, 17-18). 
He speaks as one who has entire power over life as 
his own creation. He can do what he will with it ; lay 
it down, take it up again; play with it as children do 
with their toys. Again, when Pilate said to him, 
"Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify and 
have power to release thee?" he answered, "Thou 
couldest have no power at all against me, except it 
were given thee from above" (John 19, 11). And 
when Peter drew the sword in the garden to defend 
him he said, "Put up again thy sword into his place; 
thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and 
he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of 
angels?" (Matt. 26, 52, 53). 

But though the death of Christ was thus purely of 
his own volition, he was constrained by a double needs- 
be. On the one hand there was a moral necessity in 
the fact that his death was the only possible solution 
of the problem of redemption. He must die or the 
guilty race must die; as it is written, "His blood 
cleanseth from all sin" and, "Without shedding of 
blood is no remission." 

And on the other hand — and this is the important 
point in our present consideration — he was constrained 
by a civil or political necessity. The penal sentence of 
an earthly court had been pronounced upon him. It 
was expressed in a death-warrant; and that warrant 
bore the seal of the Roman Empire. As a good citizen 
he must yield assent to it. It is true he had been con- 
demned in a moot-court, with suborned witnesses, but 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT 175 

that matters not. As we shall see, he looked upon the 
secular government as of divine authority, and he must 
bow his head before it. Here was, indeed, the most 
eloquent tribute that ever was paid to civic obligation. 
Many were the eloquent sermons of Savonarola in the 
Duomo of Florence touching the duties and responsi- 
bilities of good citizenship ; but they had not the con- 
vincing power of this calm submission of Jesus to the 
authority of the civil government ; they could not ap- 
proach the pathetic eloquence of this dying prayer 
not only for those who were executing the unjust 
decree, but for those who had pronounced it : "Father, 
forgive them, for they know not what they dor' 
It was meet that in the article of death he should thus 
emphasize what he had consistently set forth in his 
discourses, the duty of yielding a loyal support to "the 
powers that be," which "are ordained of God." 

The second saying of Jesus, which has special sig- 
nificance in this connection, is this : "My kingdom is 
not of this world." The words were spoken on the 
morning of the great tragedy. The Jews had pre- 
sented themselves at daybreak with their prisoner at 
the gateway of the Pretorium, which they declined to 
enter lest they should defile themselves on that holy 
day. So Pilate came out and thus conversed with 
them: 

Pilate: "What accusation bring ye against this 
man ?" 

Jews: "If he were not a malefactor, we would 
not have delivered him unto thee." 

Pilate: "Take ye him and judge him according to 
your law." 



176 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

Jews: "It is not lawful for us to put any man to 
death." 

Pilate (addressing Jesus) : "Art thou the King of 
the Jews ?" 

Jesus: "Sayest thou this of thyself, or did others 
tell it thee of me ?" 

Pilate: "Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the 
chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast 
thou done?" 

Jesus: "My kingdom is not of this world: if my 
kingdom were of this world, then would my servants 
fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews ; but 
now is my kingdom not from hence." 

Pilate: "Art thou a king then?" 

Jesus: "To this end was I born, and for this 
cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness 
unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth 
my voice." 

Pilate (derisively) : "What is truth?" 

We shall better understand the words of Jesus in 
this colloquy by reverting for a moment to his third 
temptation in the wilderness. The tempter with a 
wave of his hand directed the thought of Jesus to the 
kingdoms of the world, saying, "All these things will 
I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." 
Then said Jesus unto him, "Get thee behind me, Satan ; 
for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God 
and him only shalt thou serve" (Matt. 4, 8-10). It is 
probably impossible for us to conceive the full stress 
of this temptation. It was as if Satan had said, "I 
know thy purpose ; thou art come to win the dominion 
of this world by the way of Calvary. But why 
shouldest thou undergo the pain, the death-anguish, 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT 177 

the heart-break? I am the Prince of this World; 
one act of homage and I will abdicate! All these 
shall be thine !" But what cared Jesus for Na- 
poleonic power ? Crowns and scepters were baubles to 
him. He came to win the world to righteousness by- 
dying for its sin. 

We find another side-light upon the words of 
Jesus respecting the character of his kingdom, in an 
incident that occurred after the feeding of the five 
thousand by the Sea of Galilee. His disciples, carried 
away by enthusiasm, said among themselves, "The 
multitude are disposed to receive Jesus as the verit- 
able Son of David come to deliver Israel from the tyr- 
anny of Rome. Let us now, with this multitude of 
passover pilgrims, escort him to Jerusalem and place 
him on the throne !" But, it is written, "When 
Jesus perceived that they would come and take him by 
force to make him a king, he departed into a mountain 
himself alone'' (John 6, 15). In other words, he 
could not ally himself with the temporal power. His 
kingdom was not of this world. He would not there- 
fore be turned aside from the straight path of his great 
purpose, which was to save his people from their sins. 

And still another aid to the right exegesis of our 
Lord's words is found in his reply to a certain man 
who said "Master, speak to my brother, that he divide 
the inheritance with me." And Jesus answered, "Man, 
who made me a judge or a divider over you?" (Luke 
12, 13. 14. Thus clearly he draws the line between the 
civil and the ecclesiastical authority. The case sug- 
gested was one which manifestly belonged within the 
jurisdiction of the civil court; and he declined to inter- 
fere with it. 



178 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

The separation of Church and State, as announced 
in the saying of Jesus, "My kingdom is not of this 
world," was a novel proposition. The Jews were ac- 
customed to the Theocracy or "government of God." 
In their Theocracy the only king was God and the only 
law was the divine code as contained in the Scriptures, 
which they unquestionably regarded as the veritable 
Word of God. But this Theocracy, like the setting 
apart of Israel to be a chosen people, was a tempo- 
rary expedient, leading to something further on. 

Let it be noted, as a matter of historical fact, that 
whenever the respective functions of Church and State 
have been united, the result has been a secularization 
of the Church on the one hand, and a demoralization 
of the State on the other. This unification of the two 
separate and distinct powers was justly characterized 
by an Irish orator, into whose soul the iron had en- 
tered, in these words: "It is a foul and adulterous 
connection which pollutes the purity of heaven with the 
abomination of earth, and hangs the tattered rags of 
political piety on the insulted cross of a crucified 
Redeemer." 

But it must not be supposed that in the teaching of 
Christ the two powers are in any wise antagonistic. 
There are some denominations of Christians that, err- 
ing at this point, have refused to give allegiance to sec- 
ular authority. The Friends, or Quakers, for example, 
decline to uncover their heads in the presence of an 
earthly court or magistrate ; their idea being that secu- 
lar governments are of the earth earthy and therefore 
not to be acknowledged by those who bow only before 
God. 

In the philosophy of Jesus the two powers are co- 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT 179 

ordinate; independent each of the other, yet so inter- 
dependent that each is bound to support the other ; and 
both alike demand the loyalty of right-minded people, 
since both alike are ordained of God. 

It would be interesting to trace the history of this 
new position, the severance of the civil and ecclesi- 
astical powers, along the ages. At the outset the fol- 
lowers of Christ were a feeble folk like the conies, and 
it was of little consequence what view they took of this 
or anything else. It was, indeed, not until A. D. 42 
that they were counted worthy to receive a distinctive 
name; as it is written, "The disciples were called 
Christians first in Antioch." (Acts II, 26). 

In the year 312 occurred the battle of Saxa Rubra, 
in which Constantine defeated the herdman Emperor, 
Maxentius, and assumed the sovereignty of Rome. In 
pursuance of a vow which he had made on the morn- 
ing of the battle, — when he saw the cross in the 
heavens and the legend, In hoc signo vinces, — he raised 
the labarum, or red-cross banner, over the imperial 
palace and proceeded to govern his dominions accord- 
ing to his rude conception of the precepts of Christ. 

From this time onward there was a constant ad- 
vance toward the consummation of the unnatural 
union of Church and State. It was not, however, until 
the eleventh century that it was formally effected; 
when Hildebrand successfully asserted the temporal 
power of the papacy. Then the Dark Ages ! Darkness 
for five weary centuries, broken at length by the sound 
of an historic hammer on the chapel door at Witten- 
berg. 

The blows of that hammer awoke the thunders of 
the Reformation, which was destined to vindicate the 



i8o THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

voluntary principle in religion. But severance of the 
two powers was not formally recognized or cham- 
pioned in any country until, in 1787, it was incorpor- 
ated into the American Constitution in these words: 
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establish- 
ment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise 
thereof." 

It has required constant vigilance to secure a con- 
sistent enforcement of this principle; and there are 
notable evasions to this day. There is scarcely a ses- 
sion of our national Congress when efforts are not 
made to obtain sectarian appropriations. In the State 
of New York one million five hundred thousand dol- 
lars is given every year to sectarian institutions of 
various kinds. It is scarcely necessary to say that every 
dollar thus appropriated is an infringement of the con- 
stitutional provision for the divorcement of the civil 
and ecclesiastical powers. 

But the third saying of Jesus touching the matter 
in hand was possibly the most significant; namely, 
"Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's" 
(Matt. 2.2, 21). It was on Wednesday of Pas- 
sion Week that Jesus uttered these words. He was 
teaching in the Temple Court; his enemies were 
eager to ensnare him. A dangerous question was pro- 
pounded: "Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar?" 
Here was a dilemma. To say, "No" would expose him 
to the charge of constructive treason ; to answer, "Yes" 
would antagonize the Jewish Nationalists and appear 
to them like a denial of his own Messianic claims. He 
called for a penny and asked, "Whose image and 
superscription is this ?" They replied, "Caesar's." Then 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT 181 

said he, "Render unto Caesar the things which are 
Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's." 

Here was a clear differentiation. And at once it 
suggests the question, What are the things that are 
Caesar's? A satisfactory answer is given in the teach- 
ings of Christ. 

First, — Recognition. Government is a fact. There 
is no blending of the philosophy of Tolstoi with the 
philosophy of Christ. The gospel is at odds with 
anarchy, every way. Christians are not at liberty either 
to antagonize the civil government or to hold them- 
selves aloof from it. 

Second, — Support. The tribute money must be 
paid because it stands for an honest quid pro quo. It 
represents walls and bulwarks, roads, viaducts, pub- 
lic improvements, schools, legislatures, protection in 
the enjoyment of rights and privileges. In other words 
the penny is due from every good citizen for value 
received. Wherefore Peter was right when, in answer 
to the question, "Does not your Master pay the capi- 
tation tax?" He answered, "Yes" (Matt. 17, 24-27). 

The apostle Paul on three several occasions threw 
himself on the protection of the Roman government. 
At Caesarea, weary of being buffeted to and fro by 
petty provincial magistrates, he cried, "I appeal to 
Caesar!" Very well; if Paul, or any other Christian, 
chooses to appeal to Caesar, then he must cheerfully 
give support to courts and judicatories in which his 
rights are sustained, and must pay to Caesar the penny 
which is his due. 

Third, — Obedience. It is recorded that when cer- 
tain publicans, having espoused his cause, came to 



182 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

John the Baptist to enquire how they should discharge 
their office, he bade them comply with its rules and 
regulations, saying, "Exact no more than that which 
is appointed you." And when certain soldiers asked 
a like question he gave a similar reply : "Do violence 
to no man, neither accuse any man falsely, and be 
content with your wages " (Luke 3, 10-14). He him- 
self was a law-abiding citizen and ever counseled obe- 
dience to the civil authority as receiving its sanctions 
from God. 

Fourth, — Subjection. And here is where the diffi- 
culty arises. For there is a point whereat the civil law 
may clash with conscience; and it is easier to obey 
than to disobey and take the consequences. Christ was 
enjoined once and again to desist from preaching. 
This he declined to do; but he offered no resistance 
when the penalty was laid upon him. 

He did, indeed, sharply rebuke a demagogue 
who sent messengers to him, saying, "Get thee out 
and depart hence; for Herod will kill thee." His 
reply was, "Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold I cast out 
devils, and I do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the 
third day I shall be perfected" (Luke 13, 32) ; that 
is, "Tell your perfidious master that I know his pur- 
pose, but my work goes on." The epithet which he 
applied to Herod showed a complete knowledge of his 
true character. The man deserved the rebuke ; and it 
was quite within the province of good citizenship that 
Christ should administer it. 

On another occasion, when a servant struck Jesus 
with the palm of his hand, his reply, while gentle in 
the extreme, was a clear exposure of injustice and an 
appeal for regularity of legal procedure: "If I have 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT 183 

spoken evil, bear witness of the evil : but if well, why 
smitest thou me?" (John 18, 19-23). 

But, having spoken of the things which are Caesar's, 
a counter question arises as to "the things that are 
God's." In case of a clash between the civil and divine 
authority, we are bound to obey the higher law. Cae- 
sar may require too much. Then comes the parting of 
the ways. A man may submit to all inconvenience and 
suffering in the interest of peace ; but under no circum- 
stances may he consent to do wrong. Fiat justitia, 
mat cczlum / The three youths in Babylon struck the 
note of highest character when they said, "Be it known 
unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor 
worship the golden image which thou hast set up I" 
They did not shrink from the penalty which the civil 
authorities imposed upon them for their disobedience ; 
but in the midst of the fiery furnace there stood with 
them One like unto the Son of God ! 

The highest level of human life is loyalty to the 
Higher Law. "If you please," says Joseph Cook, "sum 
up the globes as so much silver and the suns as so 
much gold and cast the hosts of heaven as diamonds 
on a necklace into one scale, and if there is not in it 
any part of the word, Ought — if Ought is absent in the 
one scale and present in the other — up will go your 
scale laden with the universe as a crackling paper 
scroll is carried aloft in a conflagration ascending to- 
ward the stars. God is in the word, Ought, and there- 
fore it outweighs all but God." 



XV 

MISSIONS 



XV 



MISSIONS 

A man is no better than his conception of God. 
A little god makes a little man, and vice versa. This 
is why we mourn, "Dear Lord, and shall we ever live 
at this poor dying rate?" We must have broader 
views of the divine life and character and purpose, if 
we would mount up as on eagle's wings. 

Wherefore we echo the cry of David, "O God, en- 
large my heart!" He felt the need of holy zeal, of 
courage, of abandon. His duty was drudgery when 
it should have been delight. His feet were weighted 
when they should have been winged. His sphere of 
activity was "cabin'd, cribb'd, confined." He knew 
his fault : hence this prayer for higher, deeper, broad- 
er views of spiritual things. Sursum cordal "O 
God, enlarge my heart !" 

In the fifth century there lived in Athens a philos- 
opher named Hierocles, who was called a Neo-Platon- 
ist because he undertook the futile task of combining 
the Platonic system with the religion of Christ. The 
gist of his teaching was contained in a series of con- 
centric circles, outlining his Law of Influence. At the 
center was Self. The innermost circle included the 
duties of Domestic Life; the next, of Society; the 
next, of the Commonwealth; and the outermost, of 
Humanity. The Law of the Circles was, that a man's 
influence is inversely as the distance from the center. 
It would thus appear that our responsibility is at its 

(185) 



186 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

maximum in the service of Ego, diminishes with the 
increase of the benevolent radius and reaches zero at 
the antipodes. 

Now the teaching of Christ is precisely the oppo- 
site of this ; to wit, the holy life begins with self-denial 
and reaches to the last man. His religion is the one 
catholic religion. His follower is a cosmopolite, who 
owes and acknowledges a distinct duty to the man 
on the outermost verge of the outermost circle. The 
purpose of Christ is the conquest of the world ; and to 
this end he presents a gospel which is adapted to all. 
How universal its truths ! How far-sweeping its eth- 
ics! We never shall be full-grown Christians until 
we apprehend the length and breadth and depth and 
height of these things. O God, enlarge our hearts! 
Save us from mean and narrow views of the gospel 
of thy beloved Son ! 

In the teaching of Jesus we observe a clear devel- 
opment of the ecumenical idea. It was not an easy 
matter to persuade his disciples, who were Jews, — a 
"chosen people/' prone to self-righteousness, secluded, 
indulging for centuries in the belief that they were 
divine favorites, while the Gentiles were but "dogs," 
— that as his disciples they must cast to the winds all 
ethnic prejudice and live as debtors to all sorts and 
conditions of men. 

The sum total of the teaching of Christ, in this 
particular, was expressed in three words, "Man," 
"Brother," and "Neighbor" ; to each of which he gave 
a new definition, as we shall see. 

I. He constantly spoke of Man as a Child of God ; 
and his broad application of this term may be inferred 
from his words, "that ye may be the children of your 



MISSIONS 187 

Father which is in heaven ; for he maketh his sun to 
rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on 
the just and on the unjust" (Matt. 5, 45). 

No originality is claimed for Jesus in this refer- 
ence to the Fatherhood of God. It is, indeed, in the 
nature of a universal concept. In Paul's sermon on 
Mars' Hill he quotes from the Greek poet, Aratus, 
"For we are also his offspring." So the Norsemen in 
their mythology refer to Odin as Al-fadir, that is, 
"Father of all." 

He did, however, give a new significance to this 
proposition by following it out to its logical conclu- 
sion ; namely, the universal kinship of the children of 
men. And this was distinctly a novel affirmation. 
The Jews were not for a moment disposed to receive 
it. The Greeks who heard Paul's sermon on Mars' 
Hill called themselves, Antochthenes, or "Children of 
the Soil"; and all others without exception were bar- 
barians to them. 

The word "kinship" is used advisedly in this con- 
nection ; and there is a whole treatise on sociology in 
it. The words "kin" and "kind" are cognate; so 
that kinship inevitably suggests the correlated duty 
of kindness. Thus Jesus says, "Ye have heard that it 
hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate 
thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your ene- 
mies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that 
hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use 
you and persecute you" (Matt. 5, 43.44). And this 
obligation he derives from the natural Fatherhood of 
God. 

At the time of Christ's advent the world was as 
far as possible from a just apprehension of this truth. 



i88 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER ; 

Men had lost the sense of filial duty and with it had 
gone all due regard for mutual rights and obligations; 
as the rays of sunlight part company with each other, 
more and more, with their increasing distance from 
the central orb. The prodigal who takes his journey 
to the far country soon develops into an Ishmaelite 
whose hand is against every man. 

It was to adjust this disorder that Christ came into 
the world. His gospel is "the gospel of reconcilia- 
tion" ; it restores men to each other in restoring them 
to God. Thus it is written, "God sent forth his Son, 
born of a woman, made under the Law, to redeem 
those who are under the law, that we might receive 
the adoption of sons" (Gal. 4, 5). 

The only hope of peace on earth is in this gospel. 
Men will continue to bite and devour one another un- 
til they find God. Wars and rumors of wars will re- 
main until men and nations learn to say, "Abba, Fa- 
ther!" It is vain to sit in councils of arbitration and 
patch up temporary truces. The Law of Nations is 
not peace, but war to the knife, and the knife to the 
hilt. "Man's inhumanity to man" will continue to 
"make countless thousands mourn," until Shiloh shall 
lift his hands in benediction over the world, saying, 
"Peace be unto you." 

II. Our Lord gave a new meaning, also, to the 
word "Brother." It had been used commonly before 
his advent but not as he used it. 

As the filial spirit, which enables us to approach 
God is not derived from our natural relation to him, 
but through the Spirit of adoption which Jesus gives 
us, so the true feeling of fraternity comes not from 



MISSIONS 189 

our natural kinship, but from our relation with Jesus 
as the only-begotten and well-beloved Son. 

He calls out of the world (ek-klesia) a company 
of believers who are to be known as "the household of 
faith." These are children of God by the Spirit of 
adoption ; and Christ is among them as Elder Brother, 
the firstborn among many brethren (Ro. 8, 29). He 
recognizes them in a peculiar kinship or filiation which 
is accorded to no others; as it is written, "Looking 
round on his disciples, he said, Behold my mother 
and my brethren" (Mk. 3,32-35). 

To the members of this household he gives a new 
commandment: "A new commandment give I unto 
you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, 
that ye also love one another. By this shall all men 
know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to 
another" (John 13,34-35). This is called a "new 
commandment" ; not because mutual love had not been 
inculcated before, but within this charmed circle it was 
placed upon a new basis of motive and measurement, 
namely, "that ye love one another as I have loved 
you." The precept had previously gone no further 
than, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself"; but 
self is now wholly eliminated. The standard of 
measurement is not a man's love for himself, but 
Christ's love for him. And Christ's love was in utter 
self-forgetfulness. He emptied himself. He made no 
account of himself in his love for the children of 
men. 

At this point Jesus touches on the sole mystery of 
the gospel. The mythologies of the Orient had many 
Mysteries ; like the Mysteries of Isis and Eleusis. The 
gospel has only one ; that is, the mystical union of the 



i 9 o THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

believer with Christ, as the branch is united with the 
vine, and the complementary mystery of mutual kin- 
ship in Christ. This is intimated in his sacerdotal 
prayer: "That they all may be one as thou, Father, 
art in me and I in thee ; that they also may be one in 
us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." 
(John 17,21). 

III. We now come to the relation which the fol- 
lowers of Christ sustain to those outside of the house- 
hold of faith. This is indicated in the term "Neigh- 
bor." The word was already familiar, but not in its 
broad Christian sense. It meant nachbar; that is, one 
who lives near by. Our Lord used it in this restricted 
sense when he said, "When thou makest a dinner or a 
supper, call not thy rich neighbors ; but call the poor, 
the maimed, the lame, the blind; and thou shalt be 
blessed" (Luke 14, 12-14). But in the parable of the 
Good Samaritan he gave the term a broader sweep. 
In answer to the question, "Who is my neighbor ?" he 
pointed to those who saw the sufferer on the Bloody 
Way and asked, "Which now of these thinkest thou 
proved neighbor to him that fell among the thieves?" 
The reply was, "He that showed mercy on him." 
Then said Jesus, "Go and do thou likewise" (Luke 
10, 25-37). In other words, a man is bound to be 
neighbor to every other man. The duties of humanity 
are not determined by any question of vicinage; only 
by the cry for help. I am bound to be neighbor not 
only to the man who lives next door but to the one 
who lives at the other side of the globe, to the dweller 
on the outermost limit of the circles of influence. A 
neighbor, in the Christian sense, is a citizen of the 
world. 



MISSIONS 191 

How splendidly this was illustrated in the life of 
Jesus! He came "to seek and save the lost." He 
was the "f riend of sinners" ; that is, the friend of all. 
As a loyal Jew he began his work at Jerusalem; but 
Jerusalem could not confine him. He betook himself 
to Samaria, where his disciples were horrified to find 
him talking at high noon with a woman of the town 
who came to draw water at the public well. He made 
itineraries among the villages of Galilee. He went 
up into the regions of Tyre and Sidon. He crossed 
over into Persea, and labored among those who were 
aliens from the household of Israel. He was city 
missionary, home missionary, foreign missionary. He 
was a cosmopolite. He was the would-be Saviour of 
all. 

In the plan of campaign which he marked out for 
his disciples, we observe the same imperial sweep of 
purpose. He said, "Go down to thy house and tell 
what the Lord hath done for thee" (Mark 5, 19). But 
it is not enough to spend one's energies in the domes- 
tic circles ; there is work to be done among the lapsed 
masses: "Go out into the highways and hedges and 
constrain them to come in" (Luke 14, 23). But there 
are still regions beyond: "Go over unto the other 
side of the lake" (Luke 8, 22). Nay; there are no 
limits to our sphere of influence : "All power is given 
unto me, in heaven and in earth ; go, ye, therefore, and 
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teach- 
ing them to observe all things whatsoever I have com- 
manded you ; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto 
the end of the present order of things" (Matt. 28, 
18-20). Thus, beginning at Jerusalem, he leads his 



i 9 2 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

disciples forth to the conquest of the world. Nor is 
their responsibility fully met and discharged so long 
as there is one soul at the remotest boundaries of the 
earth who has not heard the glorious gospel of the 
blessed God. 

The history of subsequent centuries is an eloquent 
commentary on this world-wide purpose. The 
Church, lingering at Jerusalem after the crucifixion 
of Jesus like a flock of frightened doves, must needs 
be scattered abroad by persecution; so that they go 
"everywhere preaching the gospel/' The glad tidings 
ring through Palestine; but Palestine is only an in- 
conspicuous province in a remote corner of the earth. 
Paul is converted and carries the tidings over Asia 
Minor, up among the mountains of Macedonia, 
through the cities of Greece and on to Imperial Rome. 
Time passes, and the word is preached in all the coun- 
tries that fringe the Mediterranean Sea, these consti- 
tuting the civilized world. Time passes, and Boni- 
face goes northward, to hew down the sacred oak of 
the Norsemen; and Augustine carries the message to 
the islands of the sea. Time passes ; westward the 
star of Bethlehem takes its way: the banner of the 
red cross is unfurled in the New World. Now the 
missionary epoch begins : a procession of heralds, with 
feet beautiful upon the mountains because they are 
shod with the preparation of the gospel, go forth to 
cover the earth with ever-widening circles of light. 

Arrest that procession and you have severed the 
life current of the church! Missionary enterprise is 
the circulation of its blood. An arrest of growth 
would be the sure symptom of approaching death. 

At this point the religion of Christ is different!- 



MISSIONS 193 

ated from all the others. It is set forth under the 
figure of a grain of mustard seed, a living thing. The 
symbol of the old religion of Egypt is the Sphinx, an 
image of stone gazing with dull eyes on caravans of 
perishing souls and casting its cold shadow over them 
as they pass by. The symbol of the Greek and Ro- 
man mythologies was the scepter of Jupiter: an im- 
potent reed in a spectral hand. The symbol of the 
Norse mythology was Thor's Hammer beating vainly 
on the gates of Jotunheim. The symbol of Islam is a 
yellow flag carried aloft by pilgrims who journey to 
kiss the black stone of the Kaaba. 

" So while the world rolls on from change to change, 
And realms of thought expand, 
The letter stands without expanse or range, 
Stiff as a dead man's hand. 

While as the life-blood fills the growing form, 

The spirit Christ has shed 
Flows through the ripening ages fresh and warm, 

More felt than heard or read." 

The religion of Christ is life, more and more 
abundantly. Life and progress! Arrest of progress 
means paresis, paralysis, the stroke of death. Grow 
or die, is the law of the mora! universe ; true of men, 
nations, religions. The story of Christianity is the 
thread of history. Never for a moment have the 
hands turned back on God's dial. The glory of the 
cross falls over the nations; the world passes under 
its power. 

And Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven is like 
to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and 
sowed in his field: which indeed is the least of all 
seeds; but when it is grown, it is the greatest among 



i 9 4 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air 
come and lodge in the branches thereof" (Matt. 13, 
31,32). 

If these things are so, let no man who professes to 
follow Christ, say, "I owe nothing to the regions be- 
yond." Let us congratulate ourselves that, in the 
philosophy of Jesus, we are citizens of the world. 
"Go ye, therefore !" All must go. The soul of a true 
disciple will empty itself in prayer, in cordial sym- 
pathy, in practical benevolence for the salvation of all. 
God's grace, when it touches with vital energy the 
heart of a sinful man, is like a pebble dropped into the 
ocean, which sets in motion circles of influence, ever 
widening circles that never cease until they have 
touched the shores of every continent and island of 
the sea. How far shall I make my power felt ? "Far 
as the curse is found!" Far as the reach of grace! 
Far as the shadow of the cross! Far as that in- 
finite word, "God so loved the world!" To this end 
may God enlarge our hearts. The word Amplius, 
which Michael Angelo called the Key of Noble Art; 
is the word for Christian service. Our thoughts are 
too small, our purposes too selfish. We have not yet 
caught the magnificent sweep of the gospel. Up with 
the imperial standards of Christ! We follow to the 
conquest of the world. Never was leader like ours; 
who hath upon his vesture and thigh a name written 
"King of Kings and Lord of Lords." His grace is the 
universal lodestone; as he said, "I, if I be lifted up, 
will draw all men unto me." 



XVI 
WEALTH 



XVI 
WEALTH 

To those who, with a malign purpose, asked Jesus 
concerning the lawfulness of the capitation tax, he said, 
"Show me a penny/' The coin in evidence was prob- 
ably a silver denarius, having on one side the image of 
Tiberius and on the other the legend, Pontifex MaxU 
mus. It was an honest coin and worthy of all respect; 
let it serve our purpose, by way of suggestion, as to the 
teaching of Christ concerning the Use and Abuse of 
Money. Hear now the Catechism of the Penny. 

Question I. — What is the moral quality of this 
coin ? 

Answer. — It has none. Everything depends on 
what is done with it. Money is called "currency" 
(from carrere, to run), because it passes to and fro 
like a messenger on errands good or evil. It is a 
mere convenience, a medium of exchange, "a com- 
mon denominator of the fractions of life. ,> It was 
silver in this instance; but shells or wampum, with 
conventional approval, would have answered just as 
well. 

"Gold! gold! gold! gold! 
Bright and yellow, hard and cold, 
Molten, graven, hammered and rolled; 
Heavy to get and light to hold; 
Hoarded, bartered, bought, and sold, 

x (197) 



198 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

Stolen, borrowed, squandered, doled; 
Spurned by the young, but hugged by the old 
To the very verge of the churchyard mold ; 
Price of many a crime untold; 
Gold! gold! gold! gold! 
Good or bad a thousand-fold; 

How widely its agencies vary — * 
To save — to ruin — to curse — to bless — 
As even its minted coins express, 
Now stamped with the image of good Queen Bess, 

And now of a Bloody Mary." 

There never was a more obvious sophism than 
that of Proudhon, "Property is robbery." If there 
be any robbery in the case, it is not that of the own- 
er but of the indolent fellow who declines to own it. 
Industry is honesty; and industry wins the penny. 
Money-making is a legitimate business, though mul- 
titudes pervert it. Blessed is he who has the genius 
for it! The larger his success, the better for himself 
and for the world. 

Question 2. — Who owns the penny? 

Answer. — Its ownership is threefold. As coin of 
the realm, Caesar, that is, the government, has a trib- 
utary right in it. The man in possession may also 
claim a just ownership, on the ground that he has 
earned it. But the ultimate ownership, back of both 
Caesar and the possessor, rests in God, as Creator and 
Proprietor of all. Caesar's claim is wholly derivative, 
since "the powers that be are ordained of God." The 
possessor's claim is merely secondary, since his 
strength of mind and sinew came from God. 

Question 3. — What is the precise relation of the 
possessor to his penny? 

Answer. — It is expressed in the word Steward- 



WEALTH i 99 

ship. And just here the teaching of Christ begins. 
He makes frequent use of such terms as "landlord," 
"householder," "husbandman." In the Parable of 
the Talents (Matt. 25, 14-30) he represents himself as 
"a man traveling into a far country, who called his serv- 
ants and delivered unto them his goods." The rela- 
tion is set forth still more clearly in the Parable of 
the Pounds (Luke 19, 12-27), where he says, "A 
certain nobleman went into a far country to receive 
for himself a kingdom, and to return. And he called 
his ten servants and delivered unto them ten pounds, 
and said unto them Occupy till I come." 

Question 4. — How long shall the possessor hold 
his penny? 

Answer. — Until called for. And it may be called 
for at any time. God speaks in many voices, ever 
and anon requiring of his people the things entrusted 
to them. An account is kept, meanwhile, in certain 
"books of remembrance"; and sooner or later "the 
Lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth with 
them" (Matt. 20, 19). 

In any case, death ends the tenure. It is an old 
saying, "There are no pockets in shrouds." We take 
nothing with us but our very own; such as will, 
reason, habit and character. All else drops from 
our cold fingers. 

"If thou art rich, thou art poor; 
For, like an ass whose back with ingots bows, 
Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a season, 
And death unloads thee." 

And after death the Judgment; that is, the reck- 
oning for goods entrusted to us. Our reward de- 
pends on faithfulness (Luke 16, 11). 



2oo THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

This day of reckoning is a necessary factor in the 
problem of human affairs. This would be but a 
topsy-turvy world without it. Here is a poor man 
who has spent his life in a hard struggle to keep the 
wolf from the door ; here is another of whom we say, 
"Everything he touches turns to gold/' Fortunate 
man? Well, that depends. We must wait to see 
what happens at the judgment bar. There the ap- 
parent inequalities of Providence shall be satisfac- 
torily accounted for. 

Question 5. — What shall the possessor do with 
his penny? 

Answer. — Three things are possible. It is clear 
that a considerable part of a man's earnings must be 
used for the necessities of life; but what after that? 
What about the margin ? First : It may be hoarded ; 
like the talent which was wrapped in a napkin and 
buried in the ground. The Lord's judgment as to 
this procedure is evident from his words, w O thou 
wicked and slothful servant/' And again Jesus said, 
"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, 
where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves 
break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves 
treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth 
corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor 
steal : for where your treasure is, there will your heart 
be also" (Matt. 6, 19-21). 

"O blind and wanting wit to choose, 

Who house the chaff and burn the grain; 
Who hug the wealth ye cannot use, 
And lack the riches, all may gain!" 

A second use, which the possessor may make of 
his penny, is to squander it. Thus the prodigal, hay- 



WEALTH 201 

ing gotten his portion of the inheritance, "went away 
into a far country and wasted his substance in riot- 
ous living/' Thus another prodigal, having amassed 
great wealth, crosses the sea and gambles it away at 
Monte Carlo. No doubt there is a temporary pleas- 
ure in such profligacy ; as Jesus said, "Woe unto you 
that are rich, for ye have received your consolation'' 
(Luke 6, 24). So far as we know, Dives in the Par- 
able (Luke 16, 19-31) was a respectable gentleman. 
It does not appear that he was addicted to any flag- 
rant vices; his fault was utter selfishness. He was 
arrayed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptu- 
ously every day; taking no interest in the beggar at 
his gate. 

Or, thirdly, the possessor of the penny may hold 
it subject to the divine call ; and he will hear that call 
in every appeal for the material or spiritual better- 
ment of his fellow-men. 

It is not enough to answer this demand with a 
tithe. The tithe is a good beginning; that is all. In 
the Parable of the Householder and his Vineyard 
(Matt. 21,33-41), it is said "When the time of the 
fruit drew near, the owner of the vineyard sent his 
servants to the husbandmen that they might receive 
the fruits of it." The withholding of such fruits is 
dishonesty. "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have 
robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed 
thee? In tithes and offerings" (Mai. 3,8-10). It is 
a mistake, however, to suppose that our obligations 
are discharged when we have turned back to the Lord 
a percentage of our income. The penny itself is his. 
The vineyard is his; the husbandmen holding it only 
and absolutely in trust for him. 



202 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

Question 6. — Are there any dangers attendant 
on the possession of the penny ? 

Answer. — Yes; many. First: There is the dan- 
ger that the possessor will regard it as his own. This 
was the fault of "a certain rich man, whose ground 
brought forth plentifully" (Luke 12, 16-21). "He 
thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, 
because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? 
And he said, This will I do; I will pull down my 
barns and build greater; and there will I bestow all 
my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, 
Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; 
take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry. But 
God said unto him, Thou fool! this night thy soul 
shall be required of thee; then whose shall those 
things be?" He spoke of "my fruits," "my barns, ,, 
and "my goods," forgetting the prior claim of God. 
Indeed, he seems not to have brought God into the 
reckoning at all. And it is to be feared that others 
reason in the same way. The penny is oftentimes a 
most plausible sophist. Christ spoke of "the deceit- 
fulness of riches," likening them to "thorns which 
choke the word, so that a man becometh unfruitful" 
(Matt. 13, 22). In order to verify his words one has 
only to contemplate the character of certain posses- 
sors of wealth. How frequently it shrivels the heart ! 
How it blinds the eyes to fairest things! How it 
"chokes" the high purposes and noble aspirations of 
the soul! 

A second danger is in putting one's trust in the 
penny; that is, giving it a fictitious value and prece- 
dence of better things. Observe the arrogance of a 
certain class. O how lofty are their eyes and their 



WEALTH 203 

eyelids lifted up! I speak not now of those who 
serve God faithfully with their wealth, but of purse- 
proud parvenus, who make a grotesque display and 
found a false respectability upon it. It was a man 
of this character who said to John Bright, "Do you 
know, sir, that I am worth a million and a half ster- 
ling ?" to whom the blunt old commoner replied, 
"Yes; and I know that you are worth nothing else/' 
It was such that Jesus had in mind when he said, 
"How hardly shall they that have riches enter into 
the kingdom of God!" And when the disciples ex- 
pressed their astonishment at his words, he added, 
"Children, how hard it is for them that trust in riches 
to enter into the kingdom of God. It is easier for a 
camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a 
rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (Mark 10, 

23-25). 

The third danger to the possessor of the penny 

is that he will serve it ; that is, allow it to assume mas- 
tery over him. This is avarice. The teaching of 
Jesus here is as sharp as a two-edged sword: "No 
man can serve*itwo masters ; for either he will hate the 
one, and love the other ; or else he will hold to the one 
and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and 
mammon" (Matt. 6,24). 

If a man find himself thus betrayed by his penny, 
what shall he do? Get rid of it! Aye, if needs be 
by casting it into the sea, as did Menecrates, saying, 
"I will destroy thee lest thou destroy me !" This was 
the teaching of Jesus in the case of the young man 
who came running and kneeling to him, asking, 
"Good Master, What shall I do that I may inherit 
eternal life ?" He said, "One thing thou lackest ; go, 



20 4 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor, and 
thou shalt have treasure in heaven ; and come, take up 
the cross, and follow me" (Mark 10,20-22). The 
young man did not follow his wise counsel : "he was 
sad at that saying and went away grieved ; for he had 
great possessions." It was indeed an heroic remedy 
which Jesus here proposed; but nothing else would 
do. The penny stood between the soul of this young 
man and God ; therefore it must be sacrificed. If you 
have wealth and cannot hold it in honest trust for 
God, it behooves you forthwith to get rid of it. For 
all considerations in this world lead up to the great 
problem, "What shall it profit a man if he gain the 
whole world and lose his life?" (Mark 8, 36). 

Question 7. — What are the privileges of the 
penny? 

Answer. — They are many and great. The man 
who, after attending to the necessities of life, has a 
margin of wealth, be it little or great, may use it for 
the betterment of the condition of his fellow-men. 
In this case he has his reward in what Cowper calls 
"the generous pleasure of kindly deeds." Sidney 
Smith said, "I think of life as arranged in two piles, 
one of misery and the other of happiness. If to-day 
I can take a little from the world's misery and add 
to its happiness, I shall, at evening, think myself a 
fortunate man." 

And there are many who make this gracious use 
of the penny. Think of the asylums, hospitals and 
other institutions of charity, built and supported by 
voluntary contributions. Who shall estimate the 
money which is constantly expended in the carrying 
on of beneficent reforms? O, there are many "good 



WEALTH 20S 

Samaritans" caring for the wounded, bringing them 
to the inn, paying their fare and saying to the host, 
'Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest 
more, when I come again I will repay thee" (Luke 
I0 > 35)- Consider the generous gifts recently bestowed 
in the endowment of our schools and colleges. In our 
own country not less than eighty-five millions of dol- 
lars were given to institutions of learning by men of 
wealth during the year 1901 ! 

But here we observe a singular fact, of portentous 
significance; to wit, The outlay of Christian wealth 
for the physical and intellectual betterment of society is 
stupendously out of proportion to what is given for its 
spiritual needs. It is, say, as one to twenty. Does this 
mean that God's stewards are of the opinion that the 
care of the body is more important than the saving of 
the soul? By so much as eternity is longer than time, 
by so much is the soul of more value than the body. 
Shall we who follow Christ give of our substance to 
feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the home- 
less, and permit them to go out into eternity with 
famishing souls and no hope of entering the Father's 
house ? 

O the shame of it! While enterprises for 
the mental and physical amelioration of the 
race are receiving millions of the Lord's money, 
his Church stretches out her hands like a men- 
dicant for the meager support of her endeavors to 
convert the world ! The stewards of the Lord's treas- 
ure are praying every day, "Thy kingdom come!" 
while they lavish manifold more on museums and 
similar charities than on their Missionary Boards; 
knowing that untold multitudes are dwelling in the 



2o6 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

regions of darkness and of the shadow of death! 
Suppose that the eighty-five millions given within 
the year to educational institutions had been placed in 
the hands of our Missionary Boards, what an army 
of evangelists would now be marching to our own 
frontiers and to pagan countries with the message 
of life! 

The blinding power of great wealth is no- 
where more conspicuous than in this fact, that the 
Lord's stewards seem to be oblivious of the great pos- 
sibilities which are in their hands for the conversion 
of the world. The word of the Master to his unfaith- 
ful servant was, "Ye should have put my money to 
the exchangers, then I should have received mine 
own with usury." The Church is our Lord's "Ex- 
change," through which he would utilize the wealth 
entrusted to his servants, to be held, subject to his de- 
mand, for the propagation of the gospel and the 
bringing of the world to God. The time will come 
when God's talents will be thus put at usury for him. 
Then his messengers will run to and fro and the 
welkin will ring with the story of salvation, and the 
earth shall be full of the glory of the Lord as the 
waters cover the sea. 

The rich and the poor meet together in this high- 
est privilege of stewardship. The widow's mite and 
the capitalist's millions go into Corban together; she 
of her penury and he of his wealth are made "labor- 
ers together" in the reaping of the harvest of souls; 
and both alike, in the faithful use of their trust, are 
"rich toward God." 

There is one saying of Christ's which gives spe- 
cial encouragement to such as are able to receive it: 



WEALTH 207 

"Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of un- 
righteousness ; that, when ye fail, they may receive 
you into everlasting habitations" (Luke 16,9). He 
lays before us here the possibility of so using our 
possessions as to prepare for ourselves a generous 
welcome at heaven's gate. Our offerings to the Lord 
may accomplish things that we dream not of. We 
are pilgrims on our way to eternity : and the right use 
of our talents will determine the plaudits that await 
us there. 

It is intimated by Christ that the faithful, as they 
approach the Heavenly City, shall be met by those 
whom they have made prisoners of hope, crying, 
"Welcome to the habitations of the gracious God!" 
Such was the dream of pious Rutherford, who, toiling 
long at Anworth and seeing no fruit of his labors, yet 
wearied not but sang this song of hope: 

" O ! if one soul from Anworth 
Meet me at God's right hand, 
My heaven will be two heavens, 
In Immanuel's land ! " 



XVII 
THE SABBATH 



XVII 
THE SABBATH 

The enemies of Jesus had followed him to 
the synagogue at Capernaum in the hope of en- 
trapping him. It chanced that one of the congre- 
gation was a man with a withered arm. Tradition 
says that he was a stone-mason with a wife and 
children dependent on him, and that in the midst 
of the sacred service he cried, "Good Rabbi, have 
compassion on me and heal my right arm! I can do 
no work and my children are crying for bread !" At 
that moment the eyes of the enemies of Jesus were 
fixed upon him: "They watched him whether he 
would heal on the Sabbath day that they might accuse 
him." And the great Heart-reader looked around on 
them with indignation, saying, "Is it lawful to do 
good on the Sabbath or to do evil ? To save life or to 
kill? What man shall there be among you that shall 
have one sheep; and if it fall into a pit on the Sab- 
bath day, will he not lift it out? How much, then, 
is a man better than a sheep ?" Hearing no response, 
he said to the man, "Stretch forth thy hand!" And 
straightway it was restored whole as the other. We 
now have to do with this incident only so far as it 
bears upon our Lord's view of Sabbath observance. 

(209) 



210 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

The question is of immense importance, not only 
because a due regard for the Sabbath is necessary to 
the welfare of humanity, but because the precept re- 
quiring it is so persistently opposed by ungodly men 
and so easily forgotten by those who should be fore- 
most in maintaining and defending it. 

It would be easy to construct a satisfactory argu- 
ment for the Sabbath without any reference to the 
teachings of Jesus. Such an argument might be 
founded safely upon an hygienic fact; to wit, that the 
necessity of such a rest is interwoven with the fibers 
of the human constitution. Or upon an industrial 
fact ; namely, that wherever the Sabbath is devoted to 
toil the result is six days' wages for seven days' work. 
Or upon a domestic fact ; that the sanctity of our home 
life is dependent on the proper observance of this rest 
day. Or upon a social fact; that usually the order 
and prosperity of any community are measured by it. 
Or upon a political fact; that no nation has ever yet 
been permanently blessed or prospered which has 
disregarded the reasonable requirements of this day. 

But it will suffice for the purpose in hand simply 
to inquire, "What is the teaching of Jesus in these 
premises?" To his disciples his word is ultimate. 
This is the test of loyalty: "He that hath my com- 
mandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me" 
(John 14,21). And, fortunately, his teaching as to 
the Sabbath is so abundant and explicit as to leave 
no room for doubt or uncertainty. Two of his say- 
ings in particular are so comprehensive and conclu- 
sive that we may safely hang our whole argument 
upon them. 

One of these sayings is, "The Son of man is Lord 



THE SABBATH 211 

of the Sabbath" (Mark 2,28). This is a repetition 
of what he had previously said at Sinai. For this 
Jesus who preached in the synagogue at Capernaum 
was the same who, fifteen hundred years before, amid 
the portents of the flaming mountain, delivered the 
precepts of the Moral Law; and his words here are 
an echo of that august utterance, "The seventh day is 
the Sabbath of the Lord thy God !" 

Let it be observed that in this saying Christ claims 
a proprietary right in the Sabbath. Time belongs to 
him, since he made it. I speak of "my watch," but 
I cannot speak thus of any moment which it measures. 
All days are God's : but he is pleased to set apart one 
day in seven as peculiarly his own; and he insists 
upon the right to say how his people shall spend it. 

If this be so, it follows that there must be no med- 
dling with God's prescript as to what shall be done 
or left undone on that day. Here is grave danger of 
trespass. Let honest men make a note of the fact 
that Sabbath desecration is dishonesty, and none the 
less dishonesty because it is a misappropriation of 
that which belongs not to any of our fellow-men but 
to God. We are not at liberty to add to or subtract 
from the Sabbath Law so much as a jot or a tittle. 

Here was one fault of the Pharisees, for which 
Christ denounced them in scathing terms; they made 
the "commandment of God to be of none effect by 
their traditions" (Mark 7, 13). To the original com- 
mand they added many unnecessary and foolish re- 
quirements, which were known as "toldoth." For 
example, it was not permitted, under the Rabbinical 
law, to kindle a fire on the Sabbath, or to bandage a 
wound. A man must not walk on the ripened grain, 



2i2 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

since that might be construed as threshing. He must 
not chase an insect, lest the ungodly say he had gone 
a-hunting. If he fed his fowl, he must leave no grain 
on the ground, because that would seem like sowing. 
If he dipped a radish in salt, he must not leave it 
there; else some might say he was pickling. There 
were thousands of such minute injunctions: through 
which the Sabbath had come to be an intolerable bur- 
den and weariness. Therefore the Lord said to the 
religious teachers of his time, "Woe unto you! For 
ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne" (Lu. 
11,46); and, tearing away these unwarranted and 
pernicious precepts, he bade the people return to the 
original requirements of the Sabbath Law. 

It is difficult to see how any thoughtful student 
of the teachings of Christ can assert that in so doing 
Jesus "abrogated the Fourth Commandment." He 
would not have done so had it been possible; but it 
was impossible in the nature of the case. Witness 
the terms of that Commandment: "For in six days 
the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that 
in them is, and rested the seventh day ; wherefore, the 
Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." It 
will be time to speak of the abrogation of the Fourth 
Commandment when its fundamental proposition 
ceases to be a fact ; namely, that God made the world 
in six creative days and then entered into his rest. 
It must be considered, also, that the law thus formu- 
lated was inscribed on tables of stone, a proceeding 
which would appear to be a misleading symbolism 
unless it signified, that the Moral Law, in distinction 
from the Ceremonial Law which was written on 
parchment, was intended to be of perpetual force. 



THE SABBATH 213 

No; so far from abrogating the Fourth Command- 
ment, our Lord, in clearing away the toldoth, did but 
restore it to its original terms. A ship comes labor- 
ing into port, unable to make headway because her 
hulk is covered with barnacles. The skipper hastens 
to put her into dry dock that she may be scraped and 
made ready to "sail free." How foolish it would be 
to pronounce this process a scuttling of the ship. Our 
Lord, in like manner, stripped off the "traditions of 
the elders," by which the Sabbath had been made 
a weariness to the people, and restored the Law to 
the form in which God had originally given it. 

The other saying of Jesus, which is of especial 
significance in this argument, is, "The Sabbath was 
made for man." Every word here is important. To 
begin with, "The Sabbath was made." This is worth 
considering, in view of the fact that it has come to be 
the fashion in some quarters to speak of the Sabbath 
as "a convention"; that is, an institution resting on 
mutual consent. The Scriptures teach, on the con- 
trary, that the Sabbath came from' God. 

And it was "made for man"; not for the Jews as 
a chosen people, but for all nations, for all genera- 
tions, for all sorts and conditions of men. The Sab- 
bath did not originate at Sinai; but is coeval with 
man. The division of time into the week of seven 
days is almost universal. It prevailed among the 
Persians, the Chaldeans, the Egyptians, the Hindus, 
the Scandinavians. The word Sabbatu was used 
among the Chaldeans to indicate a rest day. 

And the Sabbath was made for the benefit of man ; 
that is, to be used as not abusing it. It was intended 
to serve the best interests of the entire man, physical, 



2i 4 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

mental, but preeminently spiritual. We live forever. 
A man is something more than "a stomach and its 
appurtenances. " There is no answer to the question, 
"What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world 
and lose his life ?^ The Sabbath has to do especially 
with the consideration of this spiritual, eternal life. 
God knew how men are harassed and overburdened 
by the cares of the six secular days and it was of his 
infinite goodness that he set apart a portion of time 
for the uses of the immortal soul. Is it too much to 
expect of a man created after the divine image that 
he will turn aside one day in seven to gaze at the 
great verities and commune with God? In the hurry 
of secular affairs our souls are like the starling in 
"The Sentimental Journey," which, beating its wings 
against its cage, kept crying, "I can't get out ! I can't 
get out!" But, blessed be God! he calls us to come 
apart on this day ; to climb the heights and for a sea- 
son bathe in heavenly sunlight and breathe the clear 
mountain air with him. 

In view of these sayings of Jesus we cannot look 
with indifference upon the increasing disregard of the 
Sabbath. The great neglect of our time is the neg- 
lect of the soul. How scrupulously we care for our 
bodies, asking, "What shall we eat and what shall we 
drink and wherewithal shall we be clothed ?" but how 
small a portion of our time and energy do we devote 
to our immortal nature. The President of one of the 
Labor Guilds of New York, in a letter complaining of 
the encroachments which employers have recently 
made on the Sabbath of his fellow-craftsmen, uses 
these pathetic words: "The result of this Sabbath 
labor is lamentable in the extreme. Wherever it is 



THE SABBATH 215 

pursued the average intelligence is low, and the moral 
tone almost ceases to exist. Few books of any kind 
are read, and the events of the day excite no interest. 
Life is a dull round of work, unrelieved by any gleam 
of the humanities. I cannot think of some of these 
places of continuous toil without calling to mind Car- 
lyle's story of the men of the Dead Sea, of whom he 
says: They made no use of their souls, and so lost 
them. But there returned to them every Sabbath a 
bewildered and half-conscious, half-unconscious rem- 
iniscence of the time when they were men with souls 
responsive to the eternal verities.' " 

Let us turn now to the example of Jesus. It is 
written that on the Sabbath his enemies "watched him 
to see what he would do." A clear light would be 
thrown upon the problem could we follow our Master 
through one of the Sabbaths of his life. 

We should see, to a certainty, that he made a dif- 
ference between that and other days. This difference 
is marked by the word "hallowed" in the Sabbath 
Law : "The Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hal- 
lowed it." In simplest terms, this means that the 
secular world was shut out. The shop was closed 
and common labor ceased : as it is written, "In it thou 
shalt not do any work." Of course, works of neces- 
sity are excepted; since "necessity knows no law." 
It was on this ground that our Lord excused his 
disciples for rubbing the wheat in their hands as they 
passed through the fields. I can remember how, dur- 
ing our Civil War, the women of the village gathered 
in the churches, between the hours of divine service 
on the Sabbath, to scrape lint for soldiers in the hos- 
pitals. This is precisely in line with what Jesus said : 



216 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

"It is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days" (Matt. 
12,1-13). 

It is safe to say that he began the Sabbath, accord- 
ing to the Jewish custom, in secret devotion; as he 
has enjoined upon us, "Enter into thy closet and shut 
thy door." It is equally safe to say that, in whatever 
home this wayfaring Man chanced to be, he knelt with 
the members of the household at the family altar. 
We know, still further, that at the stated hour he 
went to the public service of the Sanctuary; for thus 
it is written: "As his custom was, he went into the 
synagogue on the Sabbath Day" (Luke 4, 16). And 
after that he set out upon his ministrations of mercy, 
"going about, doing good." Not less than eight of 
his miracles of healing were wrought on the Holy 
Day. Go and do thou likewise. It is greatly to be 
feared that our Sabbath is too much wrapped up in 
negative injunctions. Let it not be forgotten among 
our many Sabbath Don'ts that there is one imperative 
Do ; namely, "It is right to do well on the Sabbath 
Day." If we would follow in the footsteps of Jesus 
let us visit the sick and minister to the poor and 
needy on this day. It is a lamentable mistake to sup- 
pose that Sabbath rest is identical with the recum- 
bence and quiescence of the night. The rest of the 
Sabbath is not in refraining from all exertion but in 
turning aside from secular cares and labors to serve 
God and our fellow-men. 

"Rest is not quitting the busy career, 

Rest is the fitting of self to its sphere; 

'Tis the brook's motion, clear without strife, 

Fleeing to ocean after its life ; 

Tis loving and serving the highest and best; 

Tis onward, unswerving; and that is true rest." 



THE SABBATH 217 

But above all the Sabbath of Jesus was spent in 
setting forth his gospel. He went everywhere preach- 
ing it. He did not scruple as a homeless man to ac- 
cept an invitation to dinner on that day; but observe 
his table-talk on such occasions. His mind was set 
on winning men to truth and righteousness. And the 
disciple who truly follows him will find his sweetest 
Sabbath rest in doing likewise. This is the day, above 
all days, for the proclamation of the evangel. This 
is the day to be telling the good news, "God so loved 
the world !" We sometimes hear of "spiritual dissi- 
pation/' Tis a rare malady and not contagious. No 
doubt Jesus, so busily employed on the Sabbath in 
labor of love, was oftentimes weary at eventide; but 
O the joy of it! There is indeed no sweeter rest 
than the weariness of those who spend their energies 
in the service of God and their fellow-men. 

"O blessed work for Jesus ! 
O rest at Jesus' feet! 
There toil seems pleasure, 
My wants are treasure, 
And pain for Him is sweet. 
Lord, if I may, 
I'll toil another -day." 

It is not to be expected that a worldly man will 
find pleasure in such a Sabbath: it must of necessity 
be a weariness to his soul. He will ever be asking, 
"May I do this?" or, "May I do that?" and seeking 
pleasures apart from those of the spiritual life. But 
a true Christian must find an unspeakable and ever- 
increasing delight in the proper observance of the 



218 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

Lord's Day. He will reap the promise, "If thou turn 
away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy 
pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a de- 
light, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt 
honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding 
thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: 
then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will 
cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, 
and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; 
for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it" (Isa. 58, 

13.14). 

John the Evangelist says, "I was in the Spirit on 
the Lord's Day and heard" — what? Voices from the 
market-place? Messages from the world without, 
such as are brought through the columns of the sec- 
ular press? The cries of those who strive for mas- 
tery in the lists of common toil or pleasure ? Ah, no ! 
he heard the voice of God and saw heaven opened! 
And every Lord's Day is for such voices and such 
visions to every man who loves God. 

The line which separates the followers of Christ 
from the world is clearly drawn, and nowhere more 
clearly than through the Sabbath day. Of old the 
Lord said, "The Sabbath ye shall keep, for it is a 
sign between me and you" (Ex. 31, 17). As the 
world opposes the sanctions of this holy day and ever 
seeks to encroach upon it, so must the people of God 
consistently observe and defend it. A Christian is a 
new man in Christ Jesus. If regeneration means any- 
thing, it means a new heart, a new conscience, a new 
will, new tastes and aspirations, a new attitude toward 
all spiritual things. The day of holy rest, which is 



THE SABBATH 219 

dullness and weariness to the unregenerate, must be 
to the Christian "a delight, the holy of the Lord, hon- 
orable/' To him it cannot be a common day, it can- 
not be an idle day, it cannot be a dull day. And the 
more faithfully he observes it, the more cordially will 
he enjoy it; finding in its sacred hours a foretaste of 
that eternal Sabbath, of which it is written, "There 
remaineth a Rest to the people of God." 



XVIII 
COMMON HONESTY 



XVIII 
COMMON HONESTY 

Our Lord made frequent use of the word "hypo- 
crite." It is a rough word ; but advisedly so, since it 
designates an abhorrent thing. It means, literally, 
a "mask-wearer," its primary application being to the 
drama. No man on the stage appears in propria per- 
sona. A pauper may play the part of a millionaire, 
a fool may appear as a philosopher. Shakespeare says, 
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women 
merely players; they have their exits and their en- 
trances; and one man in his time plays many parts." 
Alas, this is the sorrow of it; that one man in his 
time should play so many parts ! 

Our Lord was the frankest of teachers. He hated 
shams, disguises, subterfuges. He loved truth and 
honesty. It is scarcely necessary to call attention to 
his inculcation of honesty in the common affairs of 
life. To tell the truth, give sixteen ounces to the 
pound and pay one's honest debts ; these were involved 
as a matter of course in his reiteration of the Moral 
Law, in the precepts of his Sermon on the Mount and 
preeminently in the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as 
ye would be done by." It was quite in line with this 
teaching that Burns sang: "An honest man, though 
ne'er sae poor, is king o' men for a' that." And Pope, 
11 An honest man's the noblest work of God." 
(221) 



222 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

But if we were to stop here we should not cross 
the threshold of our theme. Christ's thought of hon- 
esty leads us through the market-place into a bound- 
less spiritual realm. We are creatures of two worlds. 
If it be important that we should walk uprightly with 
our fellow men as to things that perish with the using, 
how much more important is it that we should main- 
tain a right attitude toward those eternal laws and 
verities that have their center and destination in God. 
For time is merely the vestibule of life. A man may 
tell the truth and pay his honest debts, and yet be 
guilty of flagrant dishonesty in the sight of heaven. 
Our highest duties are those of which earthly laws 
take no cognizance. We may not minimize the im- 
portance of honesty in our common walk and conver- 
sation, nor did Christ fail to enforce this; but our 
present purpose is to set forth his teaching with re- 
spect to honesty in our more immediate relations with 
God. 

At the time of Christ's advent, the foundations of 
the spiritual deeps were broken up. It is recorded that 
the priests of the pagan temples had so far lost confi- 
dence in their religions that they laughed in each oth- 
er's faces to think of the impositions which they were 
practising upon the people. Like insincerity was also 
found in Judaism, insomuch that the solemn rites and 
ceremonies of Zion were largely a glittering show. 
The ministrants at the altar were mask-wearers ; their 
oaths were as straws, their vows as empty air. 

One morning, while Jesus was teaching in Solo- 
mon's Porch, a mob came surging up the marble steps, 
led by Scribes and Pharisees, dragging a woman who 
had been taken in the act of adultery; and flinging 



COMMON HONESTY 223 

her on the pavement, they cried, "Moses in the law 
requireth that such as she shall be stoned; but what 
sayest thou ?" He stooped, without a word, and wrote, 
upon the dust of the pavement, "Let him that is with- 
out sin among you cast the first stone at her." And it 
is written, "Beginning at the eldest they went out, one 
by one." Who are these that speak of Moses and 
prate about the Law ? See them stealing away. They 
would fain escape observation. Their masks have 
slipped down; their faces are crimson. Play-actors, 
pretenders, hypocrites all! 

Let us go back and begin at the beginning of the 
teaching of Jesus in these premises; namely, with his 
first proposition, that a man is bound to believe the 
truth. He is but a shallow thinker who says, "For 
forms of faith let canting bigots fight; his faith can- 
not be wrong whose life is right." For there can be 
no ethics without creed. "As a man thinketh in his 
heart, so is he." We are not surprised, therefore, to 
find Jesus putting a profound stress upon the impor- 
tance of believing. Not less than forty times does he 
make use of that imperative word "believe." He sets 
forth faith as the very foundation of life. We walk by 
it, we triumph in it, we are saved through it. 

But to say that a man must believe is not enough. 
He is bound to believe the truth. Truth is not a mere 
matter of opinion; it is objective fact. It is a straight 
path leading to God. It is a straight path, and one 
only; and the business of every man is to find it. 
Prejudice alone prevents. The enemies of Galileo re- 
fused to look through his telescope, lest they might ob- 
serve the satellites of Jupiter and so be unable to main- 
tain the opinions which they had advanced against 



224 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

him. God has never left himself without a witness: 
but men, entrenched in prejudice, close their ears 
against the testimony. 

Is there, then, an ultimate standard of truth? And 
if so, where? The ultimate standard is the voice of 
God. He speaks in nature: so that the idolater who 
bows before "an image made like to corruptible man, 
or to birds and beasts and four-footed creeping 
things" is without excuse. There are so many voices, 
and none of them is without signification. The in- 
visible things of God are clearly seen in every leaf, in 
every star of heaven, in every flower of the field. "He 
that hath ears to hear let him hear." But when the 
very skies are rent asunder to give utterance to truth, 
men stand around, saying, "Behold, it thundereth!" 
They perceive the majestic sound but not the articu- 
late voice. 

God speaks still more clearly in the Scriptures : 
and the responsibility of those who have received these 
oracles is equal to their high privilege. It is incum- 
bent on them to hear and receive the truth. The skip- 
per who refuses to follow his chart and thereby wrecks 
his ship, has nobody to blame but himself ; his alleged 
sincerity will not save him. "Search the Scriptures," 
said Jesus, "for in them ye think ye have eternal life 
and these are they which testify of me." The Jews 
affirmed that they believed the Scriptures, but Jesus 
denied it. "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have 
believed me, for he wrote of me ; but if ye believe not 
his writings, how shall ye believe my words ?" (John 

5, 46. 47-) 

The ultimate authority, however, is Christ him- 
self; who as the incarnate Word, the complement of 



COMMON HONESTY 225 

the written word, completes the revelation of God. 
He said, "I am the truth" ; and, "For this cause came 
I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the 
truth" (John 18, 37). If a man is really desirous of 
knowing the truth, he will sacrifice everything to gain 
it. He will not expect to evolve it out of his own 
inner consciousness ; but will go after it as earnestly as 
did the Argonauts in quest of the Golden Fleece. He 
will open his ears to all voices that declare it; and 
above all else he will hear the voice of Jesus saying, 
"Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. 
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me !" 

But how shall a man assure himself that Jesus is 
indeed the ultimate authority in this matter? Let him 
"come and see." Let him put away prejudice, assume 
a teachable spirit and look straight into the face of 
Christ. When John the Baptist was a lonely prisoner 
in the castle of Machaerus his faith failed him. Was 
it strange that under such circumstances the eye of 
the caged eagle should be filmed ? But he did not al- 
low himself to rest in uncertainty. The test of "hon- 
est doubt" is its passionate desire to arrive at truth. 
John sent messengers to Jesus to ask, "Art thou he 
that should come or look we for another ?" And Jesus, 
performing many wonderful works in their presence, 
said, "Go, tell John the things which ye have seen 
and heard. The blind receive their sight, the lame 
walk, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised, and 
the poor have the gospel preached to them" ; adding 
these significant words, "And blessed is he who shall 
not be offended in me" (Matt. 11,2-6). 

The man who yields to prejudice, refusing to go 
straight to headquarters to resolve his doubts, must 



226 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

not complain if he be given over to believe a lie. The 
unpardonable sin is refusing to hear. "Ye will not 
come unto me that ye might have life." The influ- 
ence of the Holy Spirit is given to all men to lead 
them into all truth. The "sin against the Holy Ghost," 
is refusing to be led. "Why do ye transgress the com- 
mandments of God by your traditions ? Well did 
Esaias prophesy of you saying, This people draweth 
nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with 
their lips; but their heart is far from me" (Matt. 15, 
7. 8). The sources of knowledge are here; and the 
Holy Spirit is present to guide us. If we believe er- 
ror, it is because we prefer to believe it. Our business 
is to face the great problems and use all facilities for 
solving them. 

The second proposition of Jesus in these premises 
is that a man is bound to make confession of his faith. 
He puts frequent emphasis upon the importance of 
words; as, "Out of the abundance of the heart the 
mouth speaketh" (Matt. 12, 34) ; and, "Let your com- 
munication be, Yea, yea ; Nay, nay : for whatsoever is 
more than these cometh of evil" (Matt. 5, 37) ; and 
again, "By thy words thou shalt be justified and by 
thy words thou shalt be condemned" (Matt. 12, 37). 

At this point honesty requires that one's words 
shall precisely tally with his convictions. This is ver- 
acity: anything less or more is falsehood. The rea- 
son why the fig-tree was cursed was not because of its 
barrenness, "for the time of figs was not yet," but 
because, being barren, it put forth the leaves of a false 
profession , as if saying, "Come hither and eat fruit of 
me" (Mark II, 12-14). If a man say, "I believe in the 
atonement of Christ," while leaning on his own merit 



COMMON HONESTY 227 

for salvation, that is hypocrisy. If a minister, in his 
ordination vow, affirms his faith in the trustworthi- 
ness of Scripture, while inwardly regarding it as a 
mingled tissue of truth and falsehood, that is hypoc- 
risy. If the incumbent of a theological chair sub- 
scribe to the doctrine of the Incarnation, while pri- 
vately asserting his disbelief in the scriptural account 
of the miraculous birth of Jesus, that is hypocrisy. 
In such cases yea is not yea and nay is not nay. The 
word does not tally with conviction; and there is no 
honesty in it. 

Still further, there may be falsehood in silence as 
well as in speech. It is an old proverb, "Silence gives 
consent." So Jesus says, "Whosoever shall be 
ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous 
and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of 
man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his 
Father, with the holy angels" (Mark 8, 38). If a 
man believe in Jesus, let him say so: or if not, let 
him say so. In any case honesty requires that he 
shall cover nothing up. One of the great needs of 
our time is for outspoken atheists and infidels. Brad- 
laugh and Ingersoll, the last of the Black Watch, are 
dead; and Unbelief mouths and mumbles in its 
speech. It "puts on a sober habit, talks with respect, 
wears prayer-books in its pocket, looks demurely: 
nay more, when grace is saying, hoods its eyes thus 
with its hat, and sighs and says 'Amen !' " It picks 
no quarrel with religion but, on the other hand, pro- 
poses to make friends with it. And, alas! there are 
those who would consent to parley! But there is no 
neutral ground. There is no place for either compro- 
mise or silence. Christ was either what he claimed to 



228 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

be, or an impostor. Let those who reject his claims 
cry, "Crucify him!" Let those who accept cry, "My 
Lord and my God!" Equivocation is falsehood; si- 
lence is cowardice. 

One of the hardest things that Jesus ever did was 
when he required the woman who had been healed of 
an issue of blood to make acknowledgment of his ben- 
eficence. She had pushed her way through the 
crowd, in the hope of touching the hem of his gar- 
ment, sensible of ceremonial uncleanness and wishing 
to escape observation. She touched him, felt the joy- 
ous thrill of health, and was creeping away. "Who 
touched me?" he asked. Then, shrinking, trembling, 
she "came and fell down before him and told him all" 
(Mark 5, 25-33). 

The third proposition of Jesus is that a man is 
bound to justify his confession of faith in his life and 
character. Samuel Johnson, in the preface to his dic- 
tionary, says : "I am never so lost in lexicography as 
to forget that words are daughters of earth and things 
are sons of heaven." We say, "Actions speak 
louder than words." Jesus said, "Let your light so 
shine before men that they may see your good works 
and glorify God." And again, "Not every one that 
saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the king- 
dom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my 
Father which is in heaven." And the same truth is 
set forth in the Parable of the Two Houses (Matt. 
7, 21-27). 

Our Lord's Doctrine of Honesty, as set forth in 
the three foregoing propositions, was practically em- 
phasized by frequent reference to the Pharisees, who 
were the religious leaders of the time. He had little 



COMMON HONESTY 229 

to say about the Sadducees, because they were open 
and avowed unbelievers. But these Pharisees were 
mask-wearers, and he thus characterized them, "Take 
heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees," and, 
"Except your righteousness shall exceed the right- 
eousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no 
case enter into the kingdom of heaven." 

He saw them casting their contributions into the 
brazen mouth of Corban, "that they might have glory 
of men," and he said, "When thou doest thine alms, 
do not sound a trumpet before thee; let not thy left 
hand know what thy right hand doeth" (Matt. 6, 
1-4). He saw them praying at the corners of the 
streets "to be seen of men," and he said, "When thou 
prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut 
thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret" 
(Matt. 6, 5-8). He saw their persistent zeal in mak- 
ing converts to their ecclesiastical party, and he de- 
nounced it: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, 
hypocrites ! for ye compass sea and land to make one 
proselyte; and when he is made, ye make him two- 
fold more the child of hell than yourselves" (Matt. 
23, 15). He called them blind leaders of the blind; 
wolves in sheep's clothing; vipers gliding noiselessly 
with poison under their lips. His denunciations fell 
like lightning from his lips : "Ye serpents, how shall 
ye escape the damnation of hell!" (Matt. 23, 33). 

He likened them to whited sepulchres, "which in- 
deed appear beautiful outwardly, but within are full 
of dead men's bones and all uncleanness" (Matt. 23, 
27). Pie saw them "sitting in Moses' seat, building 
the tombs of the prophets and garnishing the sepul- 
chres of the righteous": "Fill ye up the measure of 



2 3 o THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

your fathers !" he cried ; "Ye be witnesses unto your- 
selves, that ye are the children of them which killed 
the prophets" (Matt. 23,29-32). All this was veri- 
fied in their rejection of him of whom Moses and the 
prophets spoke ; for these very men were presently to 
lift up their voices with the multitude, crying, "Crucify 
him!" 

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. 
Be true. Be honest. Be transparent as the light. 
The doctrine of Jesus in this matter is quick and 
powerful. He requires that we shall be honest not 
only in our dealings with our fellow-men, but with 
ourselves and God. Let us believe what we say and 
say what we believe. Let us ever be telling the truth, 
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Those 
who reject the gospel should have the courage to say 
so. It behooves those who accept it to stand by their 
colors. In any case let us be sincere before God, the 
God whose eyes run to and fro through all the earth 
beholding the evil and the good. No lip-service here ! 
Let us lift up holy hands with our hearts unto him; 
for God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must 
worship in spirit and in truth. 



XIX 
TEMPERANCE 



XIX 

TEMPERANCE 

If the relation of a Christian to the temperance 
question is ever to be justly determined there must 
be an elimination of certain factors from the prob- 
lem. One of these is verbal definition. There are 
thirteen different words for "wine" in the Scriptures, 
characterizing the fruit of the vine "from the kernel 
to the husk" ; and there is scarcely one of these words 
which does not admit a valid difference of opinion. 
I may think that tirosh or glukos means the unfer- 
mented juice of the grape, but what does that matter 
to my neighbor who is endeavoring to solve an eth- 
ical question, so long as there are many wise men 
who differ with me? 

The problem, obviously, cannot be solved along 
the narrow grooves of personal opinion. Jesus made 
wine at the marriage supper in Cana. Was it intoxi- 
cating wine? I believe not, for a variety of reasons 
which are not germane to this consideration ; the point 
being that many, for reasons which appear to them 
equally cogent, take the opposite view. And again, 
at the institution of the Sacrament our Lord took the 
cup and gave thanks, saying, "This cup is the new 
testament in my blood shed for the remission of sins ; 
drink ye all of it." The question is, What was in that 
cup? Fermented wine? To me it seems that the 

(233) 



234 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

preponderance of evidence is against it. But here 
again there is a clash of opinion. Is it not evident 
that the question in hand is not to be settled along 
these lines? 

Moreover, it cannot be determined by the example 
of Christ. There are those who, like myself, do not 
believe that Christ indulged in alcoholic wine; but 
there are many others who take issue with us. The 
question, "What am I to do?" is not to be settled by 
asking, "What did Christ do?" since there is no way 
of determining with certainty what he did do. One 
thing we know: he always did right; but what was 
right for him is not necessarily right for me. Circum- 
stances alter cases. He wore sandals; that does not 
mean that I must do so. He swept the money- 
changers out of the Temple with a scourge of small 
cords; it would be the height of folly for me to imi- 
tate him. He denounced the religious leaders of his 
time as a generation of vipers, hypocrites, children 
of the devil; that does not justify me in the use of 
similar epithets. He plucked corn as he passed 
through the fields, which was quite lawful and proper 
then; but it would be petty larceny in these days. 
This means simply that the example of Jesus is not 
the supreme rule of Christian living. I am aware 
that this crosses the argument of many who insist 
on the supreme importance of following "in his 
steps"; nevertheless I venture to assert that Christ 
nowhere makes his example the preeminent rule of 
conduct for us. 

Is there such a rule? Aye: the teaching of Jesus. 
He iterates and reiterates the binding force of his pre- 
cepts. "Ye are my disciples, if ye do whatsoever I 



TEMPERANCE 235 

command you" (John 15, 14) ; "He that hath my 
commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth 
me" (John 14,21) ; "If ye keep my commandments, 
ye shall abide in my love" (John 15, 10) ; "Go ye, 
therefore, and teach all nations to observe all things 
whatsoever I have commanded you" (Matt. 28,20). 
We are indeed required to follow Christ as the sheep 
follow the shepherd; the mind that was in Christ 
Jesus must be also in us. But while, owing to cir- 
cumstances, we may not always be able to tread pre- 
cisely in his steps, we are always and under all cir- 
cumstances bound to obey him. 

If, now, by the elimination of the foregoing fac- 
tors, w r e have succeeded in reducing the problem to its 
simplest terms, let us proceed to the inquiry, What 
does Jesus teach as to the use of intoxicating drink? 
To answer that is to determine the duty of all Chris- 
tians; this being the touchstone, "Ye are my friends 
if ye do whatsoever I command you." 

The sum total of his teaching is, of course, that we 
shall do right. We are to do right always and every- 
where : and we are to do right with little or no regard 
to what people shall say about it. In the presence of 
his enemies, who criticised him for mingling in social 
life, as they had criticised John the Baptist for his as- 
cetic habits, our Lord said, "Whereunto shall I liken 
this generation? It is like unto children sitting in 
the market-place, and calling one to another, 'We 
have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we 
have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented.' 
For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor 
drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil. And 
the Son of Man came eating and drinking; and ye 



236 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

say, Behold, a gluttonous man and a winebibber, a 
friend of publicans and sinners. But Wisdom is jus- 
tified of her children" (Luke 7, 31-35). In other 
words, it is useless for us to veer with every chang- 
ing wind of criticism; we cannot keep time to the 
merry or plaintive music of those about us; but we 
can always do right; and, in the end, the children of 
Wisdom will justify us. 

And the right is to be determined by the teaching 
of Jesus. Here is a cup of wine in my hand ; shall I 
drink or refrain from drinking it? I am quite free 
to decide for myself. But let it be remembered that 
freedom involves responsibility, and for its just exer- 
cise I must answer before God. He is the free man 
whom the Son makes free (John 8,36). Such free- 
dom as this sets a man thinking and throws him back 
on his conscience. As a follower of Christ I must de- 
termine for myself where duty lies according to his 
words; and having found that path I am free to fol- 
low it. This is "the glorious liberty of the children 
of God." 

In pursuing our inquiry now, as to the trend of 
Christ's teaching in these premises, we shall be helped 
by remembering that he sets forth duty in three rela- 
tions, to wit, a man's relations with himself, with his 
fellow men and with God. 

I. At the outset, a man is bound to make the 
most of himself. The prime purpose of Jesus in 
coming into the world is to restore us to our lost 
estate in the likeness of God. He says, "I am come 
that ye might have life, and that ye might have it 
more abundantly" (John 10, 10). And again he 
speaks of himself as "giving life unto the world." 






TEMPERANCE 237 

The life here referred to is that which man had for- 
feited by sin. It means virtue, character, likeness to 
God. "The life is more than meat"; "it consisteth 
not in the abundance of the things which he pos- 
sesseth" (Luke 12, 15). A man's prime duty, there- 
fore, is to co-operate with Christ in bringing himself 
up to this high level of spiritual life; or, in other 
words, to make the most of himself. 

Now as to this glass of wine in my hand; what 
shall I do with it? That must be determined by the 
inquiry whether indulgence will help or hinder the de- 
velopment of the best that is in me. I know that, in 
multitudes of cases, wine reddens the eyes, soddens 
the flesh and makes a common sewer and cesspool of 
the body which should be a temple for the indwelling 
of the Spirit of God. I know that intoxicating drink 
has a deleterious effect on the mind, insomuch that 
Shakespeare was moved to say : "O that men should 
put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their 
brain; that we should with joy, pleasance, revel and 
applause transform ourselves into beasts!" I know, 
moreover, that at this moment a vast procession of 
immortal beings, under the influence of this beverage, 
goes reeling, staggering, hiccoughing through life 
and forward into that unbroken night from which 
returns an awful voice, "No drunkard shall inherit the 
kingdom of God!" In the face of such portentous 
facts, is it right for me to partake? One thing is 
sure: it is safe to refrain. The drunken host is re- 
cruited always and only from the ranks of the moder- 
ate drinkers. Is not total abstinence, then, the part of 
wisdom ; and does not the teaching of Jesus, thus far, 
point that way? 



238 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

II. Now what has he to say respecting a man's 
relations with his fellow men? Cain asked, "Am I 
my brother's keeper ?" Jesus answered that question 
when he said, "Follow me and I will make you fishers 
of men." As followers of Christ we are not living 
to ourselves, but for all about us. 

I am surrounded on every side by people who need 
help. If my ears were unstopped I should find that 
the very air is resonant with their cry. Here are 
helpless children ; here are men and women with weak 
consciences; here are the vicious, blind to high pur- 
pose and intent upon their sins; here are the thou- 
sands of inebriates who jostle me along the street. 
Am I responsible for them? Aye, according to the 
measure of my influence. In the philosophy of Christ 
I am debtor to every man. What can I do in their 
behalf? How can I save them? Now bring that 
question to bear on this wine-cup. Can I best serve 
my fellows by indulging or refraining from it? 

Do you say, "I am free"? Quite true. "Breth- 
ren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not 
your liberty for an occasion to the flesh ; but by love 
serve one another" (Gal. 15, 13). Be ye "as free and 
not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, 
but as the servants of God" (I Pet. 2, 16). Let it be 
borne in mind that in the teaching of Jesus, just here, 
the supreme question is not one of freedom but of 
service, to wit, How can I best serve my fellow men ? 

It is well to emphasize this Rule of Service. Our 
Lord said of himself that he "came not to be minis- 
tered unto, but to minister" (Mark 10,45) > an ^ fur- 
ther, "Whosoever of you will be chiefest shall be 
servant of all." 



TEMPERANCE 239 

Add to this his Rule of Offenses : "It must needs 
be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom 
the offense cometh ; it were better for him that a mill- 
stone were hanged about his neck and he were cast 
into the sea" (Luke 17, 1, 2). It was in pursuance of 
this teaching that Paul was moved to say in his dis- 
cussion as to the use of idol-meats at Corinth, "If 
meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh 
while the world standeth" (I Cor. 8, 13). 

And consider still further, the Rule of Self-denial ; 
"If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, 
take up his cross and follow me" (Mark 8, 34). The 
man of the world is given to self-pleasing; but the 
man of Christ is pleased to surrender all for the good 
of his fellows. Of our Lord himself it is written, 
"He being in the form of God thought it not robbery 
to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputa- 
tion and took upon him the form of a servant, and 
humbled himself and became obedient unto death" 
(Phil. 2, 6). He "emptied himself" in behalf of men. 
Let the mind that was in Christ Jesus be also in us. 
Shall we clamor for our rights ? Shall we insist upon 
our liberty ? There is no right that can for a moment 
be compared with the privilege of surrendering all 
rights in the behalf of men; and there is no liberty 
so true or noble as the liberty of humbling ourselves 
that others may walk over us into the kingdom of 
God. 

It is indeed a little thing for me to give up my 
glass of wine. And the greatest thing in the world is 
to save a man. I remember, as if it were but yester- 
day, an incident that happened more than forty years 
ago. It was in a frontier village in the West. We 



2 4 o THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

were awakened at midnight by the clanging of bells; 
the only saloon in the village was on fire. Men 
formed in line, passing buckets of water from hand 
to hand. A cry was raised that a man was in the 
burning building. Peering under the smoke, we 
could see him, lying on the floor before the bar. One 
of the leading men of the place, binding a wet hand- 
kerchief over his mouth and nostrils, crept in on 
hands and knees. He slowly dragged the drunken 
wretch to safety, and then fell unconscious. He 
could not hear the shouts of the people. He had im- 
periled his life to save a man, a man of whom the 
general verdict would have been, "He was scarcely 
worth it." I hear those shouts to this day. The 
world recognizes such magnanimity; how much more 
shall God ? If by the giving up of a mere indulgence 
which lies within the province of our personal free- 
dom, we may perchance exert an influence for good 
on a single soul, is not the path of duty clear? Ere 
we partake of this cup, let us recall our Master's 
words, "My meat and drink is to do the will of him 
that sent me" (John 4, 34), 

III. It remains to consider our personal relation 
with God ; for to this the teaching of Christ ultimate- 
ly brings us. Here is the crux of every ethical prob- 
lem. Jesus said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart and soul and mind and strength." 
He said also, "Seek ye first of all the kingdom of God 
and all other necessary things shall be added unto 
you." And further, "Let your light so shine before 
men that they may see your good works and glorify 
God." Thus God is made to fill the whole horizon of 
human life. So far, then, as the wine-cup is con- 



TEMPERANCE 241 

cerned, the question resolves itself into this, "How can 
I best serve God, by partaking or by refraining? 
Which will best qualify me to discharge my obliga- 
tions to him?" 

It is understood that great industrial corporations 
insist that their employees shall be abstinent. It is an 
open secret that even proprietors of dram-shops re- 
quire their bartenders to refrain from drinking. The 
superintendents of leading railways will have none 
but total abstainers in their service, life and property 
being ever at stake. I ask in all soberness whether 
the duties of an engineer require a clearer eye, 
a steadier hand or a more reliable judgment than 
the responsible duties of a follower of Christ whose 
business is the winning of immortal souls? Are his 
tasks more delicate? Are his responsibilities more 
exacting? The man who enlists in divine service is 
obviously bound to keep himself in the best condi- 
tion. He must ever be in readiness, girt and pano- 
plied, to do his Master's will. 

In view of the foregoing facts, we conclude that 
Jesus teaches total abstinence; since thus alone can a 
man make the most of himself, exert the most salu- 
tary influence over his fellow men and lend himself 
most faithfully to the glory of God. 

What now, as a servant of Jesus, shall I do with 
this glass of wine? Shall I drink it or refrain from 
drinking it ? 

It is recorded that when David was beleaguered 
in the cave of Adullam he longed for a drink of 
the water of the well at Bethlehem. Then three of 
his mighty men, who overheard, brake through the 
hosts of the Philistines, drew water from the well be- 



242 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

side the gate and brought it to David. And he said, 
"God forbid that I should drink the blood of these 
men who have put their lives in jeopardy !" where- 
fore he poured it out unto the Lord. I look upon this 
wine and remember what it means. What tears of 
widows and orphans are here ! What waste of talent 
and treasure is here ! What anguish of ruined souls ! 
Drink if you will, my friend. You may claim your 
right ; you may insist upon your freedom ; but, as for 
me, I cannot drink this cup of the blood of men. I 
will rather pour it out before the Lord as a recog- 
nition of my covenant with him in the behalf of my 
fellow men. 



XX 
PRAYER 



XX 

PRAYER 

The best definition of prayer is to be found in the 
prayer-life of Jesus. He prayed "without ceasing/' 
showing that prayer is a state, a relation, an attitude 
toward God. But his life also illustrated the fact that 
prayer expresses itself in stated and impulsive acts of 
devotion. It is like the love between a mother and 
her child; words of endearment are an essential part 
but by no means the whole of it. Or shall it be 
likened to the perpetual commerce which goes on be- 
tween the ocean and the sky ; an unceasing exhalation 
of moisture which descends in morning dews and 
rains, exhales again and murmurs back in brooks and 
rivers rolling to the sea. 

It was the custom of Jesus on occasion to go 
"apart" for prayer. His closet was the solitude of 
the forest, its closed door the silent night, its window 
opened toward heaven the starry canopy above him. 
One of his prayers thus offered was overheard and 
put on record (Matt. 26, 36-46). He left us, further- 
more, an example of prayer in the public assembly 
(John 17). And of silent prayer, also, when, lifted 
up before the eyes of the world, his hands stretched 
out, his frame shaken with "groanings which could 
not be uttered," he offered without a word a mighty 
supplication, which, in the progress of the ages, is 

(245) 



246 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

drawing all nations, as by the force of an irresistible 
lodestone, to the feet of God (Ps. 2,8; John 19,30). 

Our immediate purpose has to do, however, with 
prayer as set forth in the oral teaching of Jesus. If 
he had never uttered a word of direction in this mat- 
ter, his life, as we have seen, would inerrantly guide 
us. But his words are so many and explicit as to 
leave no possibility of doubt for those who truly fol- 
low him. 

First : as to the Rationale of Prayer. 

The question is asked, "Why should we pray? 
The Father knoweth that we have need; why, then, 
should we entreat him? ,, The short answer is, Be- 
cause we are thus bidden. But our Lord delivers no 
arbitrary edicts; he stoops to our infirmity, saying, 
"Come now, let us reason together" ; and in this con- 
ference he sets forth the philosophy of prayer so as 
to answer all objections to it. 

The objection constantly advanced by a certain 
class of scientists, and, by some theologians who fol- 
low in their wake, is that an answer is impossible be- 
cause it involves a violation of law. To this our Lord 
replies comprehensively that prayer itself is in pur- 
suance of law; a law which must be reckoned with 
in any just consideration of the divine economy. 

"For so the whole round earth is every way 
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God." 

The law of Prayer is as real as that of gravity, or 
germination, or the movement of the heavenly bodies. 
No science of nature or history, of Providence or 
grace, can be complete which does not include it. 

Let it be granted that an answer to prayer is in 
the nature of a miracle ; as such it is not a violation of 



PRAYER 247 

the normal order, but simply the operation of a higher 
law. In the interaction of laws, the lower ever gives 
way to the higher. The law of the mist says, "Let 
there be gloom !" but the law of the wind sweeps it 
aside, crying, "Let there be light !" 

An account must be taken of God's reserve. He 
has not admitted us into the sanctum sanctorum of 
his counsels. He wheels new forces on the field at 
will. If a member of our household falls ill, the mal- 
ady is not allowed to pursue its course unhindered; 
we forthwith call a physician, who introduces a new 
factor into the problem and so arrests what seems to 
be the natural order. May we not summon God in 
like manner to help us? If an engineer can lay his 
hand upon a lever and reverse the wheels of his loco- 
motive, may not the Lord of the universe do a like 
thing when his children cry unto him? 

This law of Prayer is the very warp of Christ's 
teaching. Its other name is Love ; that is, God's love 
toward men. That is a dreary philosophy, at best, 
which refuses to take cognizance of this ; which makes 
the law greater than the Law-giver, binding him to 
the inevitableness of his own machinery and over- 
looking that omnipotence of his which is suprema 
lex. Among the last words of David Strauss were 
these: "In the enormous machinery of the universe, 
amid the incessant whirl and hiss of its iron- jagged 
wheels and the deafening crash of ponderous stamps 
and hammers, in this terrific commotion, I find myself 
a helpless and defenceless man, not sure for a moment 
that a wheel may not seize and rend me or a hammer 
crush me into powder; and this sense of abandon- 
ment is something awful !" Such is the darkness, the 



248 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

despair into which the soul is brought when it elim- 
inates the divine love from the science of life. 

In answer to the objections which are made to 
prayer our Lord presents an imposing array of ex- 
ceeding great and precious promises; such as, "Ask, 
and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; 
knock, and it shall be opened unto you." How can 
this be reconciled with the suggestion that prayer is 
valuable for its reflex influence alone? If thus inter- 
preted, it must read, "Ask, and though the thing ye 
desire may not be given, ye shall be brought into such 
an attitude of reverent acquiescence in the inevitable 
as will make you satisfied to get along without it. 
Seek; and though ye may never find, the very act of 
seeking shall strengthen the sinews of your soul and 
bring you into closer harmony with the normal order 
of things. Knock; and though God has no intention 
of opening the door, by persistent knocking ye shall 
attain to such a condition of mind as no longer to 
care to come in." It looks as if Christ had antici- 
pated such sophisms in that he repeated the prom- 
ise referred to with greater emphasis, saying, "For 
every one that asketh, receiveth ; and he that seeketh, 
findeth ; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened." 
(Matt. 7, 7. 8.) 

The suggestion that God is so disabled by the 
mechanism of his universe that he cannot listen to 
the supplications of his people is justly assigned by 
Milton to the Prince of Darkness, where he says : 

"If by prayer 
Incessant, I can hope to change the will 
Of Him who all things can, I would not cease 
To worry Him with my asciduous cries; 



PRAYER 249 

But prayer against His absolute decree 

No more avails than breath against the wind, 

Blown stifling back on him who breathes it forth." 

This sophism is antagonized not only by such 
general promises of Jesus as have already been ad- 
duced, but by a multitude of specific directions as to 
prayer for both temporal and spiritual gifts. 

We turn, second, to the Rule of Prayer, as set 
forth in the teaching of Jesus. 

How shall we pray? In general terms, the sole 
condition of the efficacy of prayer is that it shall really 
be prayer. Saying one's prayers is not praying. The 
words of the Pharisee, "God, I thank thee that I am 
not as other men are," were not prayer. The long 
supplications and vain repetitions of the Rabbis at the 
corners of the streets were not prayer. The bewildered 
murmuring of an unbeliever lost in the labyrinths of 
his own speculations, "O God, if there be a God, save 
my soul if I have a soul," is not prayer. The 
cry of the unrighteous, when overtaken by sudden 
danger, "God have mercy on me!" is not prayer. 
The shout of the frenzied multitude, "O Baal, hear 
us!" though accompanied by flowing blood, is not 
prayer. 

What is prayer? The secret of its life is the filial 
spirit: "When ye pray say, Our Father." The great 
argument runs on this wise: "If earthly parents 
know how to give good gifts unto their children, 
how much more shall your Father which is in heaven 
give good things to them that love him?" All the 
elements of true prayer flow out of this filial spirit, 
as we shall see. 

(1) Sincerity. If God were not our Father, he 



250 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

might be satisfied with lip-service. The man who is 
not on filial terms with him may think that he shall 
be heard for his much speaking. Thus Jesus said, 
"Ye hypocrites! Well did Esaias prophesy of you, 
saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their 
mouth, and honoreth me with their lips; but their 
heart is far from me" (Matt. 15, 7, 8). But a father 
will have the tribute of sincerity, whatever else may be 
lacking. Our Lord refused to grant a sign on de- 
mand (Mark 8, 12) ; and he refused to give his cre- 
dentials to those who opposed him (Mark 11, 33) ; 
but he never rejected an earnest request for physical 
or spiritual help. He healed those who themselves 
came to him, and honored the supplications of such 
as brought forth their sick and laid them in couches 
along the way. 

(2) Faith. Jesus said to his disciples, when they 
expressed wonder at the withering of the fig-tree, 
"Have faith in God; for verily I say unto you, that 
whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou re- 
moved and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not 
doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things 
which he saith shall come to pass ; he shall have what- 
soever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things 
soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive 
them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11, 22-24). To 
the father of the demoniac boy he said, "If thou canst 
believe; all things are possible to him that believeth" 
(Mk. 9, 23). To the two blind men who followed him, 
crying, "Thou Son of David have mercy on us!" he 
said, "Believe ye that I am able to do this ?" And they 
said, "Yea, Lord." Then touched he their eyes, say- 
ing, "According to your faith be it unto you" (Matt. 9, 



PRAYER 251 

28. 29). To Jairus who besought the healing of his 
little daughter, he said, "Be not afraid, only believe" 
(Mk. 5, 36). To the leper who came kneeling and 
saying, "If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean, ,, he 
answered, "I will; be thou clean" (Mk. 1, 40. 41). 
Over and over again he said to those whom he helped, 
"Go in peace, thy faith hath saved thee." 

(3) Importunity. This also is involved in the filial 
spirit. A man approaching a king with a request is 
likely, when rebuffed, to leave off asking; but if the 
petitioner be the king's son, he will not so readily take 
no for an answer. The importunate widow felt that 
she had a valid claim upon the judge in her own city; 
and his rude answer was a recognition of that claim : 
"Because she troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by 
her continual coming she weary me" (Luke 18, 1-7). 

We are nowhere told that our prayers shall be 
answered on the moment. God reserves the right to 
tarry if He will. This may be for the trial of faith, as 
in the case of the Syrophenician woman. We may 
pause here for a moment to observe the colloquy be- 
tween her and Jesus, because it is full of encourage- 
ment to those who have long been praying apparently 
in vain. 

The woman: "Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou 
son of David ! my daughter is grievously vexed with a 
devil." 

Silence. "He answered her not a word." 

The disciples: "Send her away, for she crieth 
after us." 

Jesus (addressing the woman) : "I am not sent 
but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." 



252 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

The woman (falling down before him) : "Lord, 
help me!" 

Jesus : "It is not meet to take the children's bread 
and to cast it to the dogs." 

The woman : "Truth, Lord ; yet the dogs eat of the 
crumbs which fall from their master's table." 

Jesus: "O woman, great is thy faith; be it unto 
thee even as thou wilt!" (Matt. 15, 21-28). 

(4) Acquiescence. The petitioner who has the 
filial spirit will consent that God shall answer in His 
own time and way. It is quite possible that God may 
keep him waiting for a time; or that in His superior 
wisdom he may determine to answer not precisely as 
the petitioner had hoped, but in some other and better 
way. A true child of God will gladly acquiesce in 
this. I do not say submit, but acquiesce. "Submit" is 
a meagre, grudging word. The Father loves us and 
knows what is best for us. We know not what to 
pray for as we ought. 

"We, ignorant of ourselves, 

Beg often our own harms, which the wise Powers 

Deny us for our good." 

When Paul besought thrice the removal of the 
thorn in his flesh, he received the answer, "My grace 
is sufficient for thee"; to which his heart responded, 
"Most gladly will I glory in my infirmities that the 
power of Christ may rest upon me." 

The true attitude of prayer in this particular is 
beautifully set forth in the familiar hymn by John 
Newton : 

"I asked the Lord that I might grow 
In faith and love and every grace, 
Might more of his salvation know, 
And seek more earnestly his face. 



PRAYER 253 

11 'Twas he who taught me thus to pray, 
And he, I trust, has answered prayer; 
But it has been in such a way 
As almost drove me to despair. 

" I hoped that in some favored hour 
At once he'd answer my request; 
And by his love's constraining power 
Subdue my sins and give me rest. 

11 Instead of this he made me feel 

The hidden evils of my heart, 

And let the angry powers of hell 

Assault my soul in every part. 

11 Yea, more, with his own hand he seemed 
Intent to aggravate my woe ; 
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed, 
Blasted my gourds and laid me low. 

'"Lord! why is this?' I trembling cried; 

'Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?' 
" 'Tis in this way,' the Lord replied, 

"I answer prayer for grace and faith. 

11 These inward trials I employ 

From self and pride to set thee free, 
And break thy schemes of earthly joy, 
That thou mayest seek thine all in me.'" 

The filial attitude is indicated ideally in the great 
prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane. Thrice he prayed, "O 
Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away 
this cup from me; nevertheless, not what I will, but 
what thou wilt :" This is the expression of true son- 
ship. The crossing of the personal desire is not met 
with a storm of questions and angry protests, but 
with a calm consent. And, while saying this, it must 
be remembered that the promises of God being Yea 
and Amen, it is always certain that the petitioner will 



254 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

receive either what he asks for or something better in 
God's good time and way. 

(5) Union with Christ. There is no entering into 
the filial relation with God except by vital union with 
his only-begotten and well-beloved Son. .We are rec- 
onciled with God through Jesus Christ, and thus only. 
It is through Christ that we receive the spirit of 
adoption whereby we cry, "Abba Father." The mys- 
tery of this union with Christ is set forth in the Para- 
ble of the Vine and the Branches, in which it is writ- 
ten : "If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye 
shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you" 
(John 15, 7). And again, "Whatsoever ye shall ask 
the Father in my name, he will give it you " 
(John 15, 16). It is related in the mythology of the 
Greeks that Antaeus, a son of Earth, was immortal so 
long as he was in contact with the earth. His enemy, 
Hercules, slew him only when he lifted him from the 
earth and held him high in air. We can claim the 
advantage of prevailing power at the mercy-seat only 
when we are in vital contact with Christ "who is our 
life." 

Wherefore, we supplicate the Father in his name. 
"If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it" 
(John 14, 14). And again, "Verily, verily, I say unto 
you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, 
he will give it you : for the Father himself loveth you, 
because ye love me and believe that I came out from 
God" (John 16, 25-27). Thus praying, it is as if 
Christ himself approached the mercy-seat and asked 
of the Father gifts in our behalf. Here then is the 
key to the situation ; to abide in Christ. Not less than 



PRAYER 255 

ten times in his farewell address to his disciples did he 
say "Abide in me." 

And the strength of our supplication is fortified 
by the fact that Christ "ever liveth to make interces- 
sion for us." It is written, "We have an Advocate 
with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous." 
The power of this intercession was revealed at the 
grave of Lazarus: "Father, I thank thee that thou 
hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me 
always: but because of the people which stand by I 
said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me" 
(John ii, 41. 42). 

(6) Fellowship with the Brethren. This also is 
implied in the filial relation. Our love toward God 
is evidenced by our love toward the brethren. Where- 
fore we are enjoined to put away all envies and jeal- 
ousies when we approach the mercy-seat. "When ye 
stand praying, forgive if ye have aught against any, 
that your Father which is in heaven may also forgive 
your trespasses" (Mark 11, 25. 26). And again, "If 
thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest 
that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there 
thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be 
reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer 
thy gift" (Matt. 5,23.24). 

(7) The filial spirit has a still broader reach; it 
includes Good Will to All. This is the mind of the 
Father and of his beloved Son. Therefore it is writ- 
ten, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, 
do good to them that hate you, and pray for them 
which despitef ully use you and persecute you ; that ye 
may be the children of your Father which is in heaven : 
for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good. 



256 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matt. 

5> 43-45). 

It thus appears that all the qualifications of accept- 
able prayer are included in one ; to wit, the Filial Spirit. 
The boundless promise, "Ye shall ask what ye will 
and it shall be done unto you/' attaches in its fulness 
only to the ideal prayer ; that is, the prayer of sonship. 
Alas, how far we all fall short. The sense of the in- 
adequacy of our prayers comes to us, now and then, 
overwhelmingly; as it did to the disciples when, hav- 
ing overheard Jesus at prayer, they cried, "Lord, teach 
us how to pray." It was in answer to that request 
that he said "When ye pray, say, Our Father." So, 
then, the quality of our prayer is measured by our 
nearness to Christ. It is through his death, as through 
the rent veil of the temple, that we enter into the Holy 
of Holies "by a new and living way." He said, "No 
man cometh unto the Father but by me." Here as 
everywhere else the fulness of our life is in him. We 
are nothing without him ; we can do all things through 
Christ who strengtheneth us. We are wretched and 
miserable and poor and blind and naked without him ; 
but in him "all things are ours, whether Paul or Apol- 
los or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things 
present, or things to come; all are ours; for we are 
Christ's ; and Christ is God's." 



XXI 
THE WORK OF GOIX 



J 



XXI 
THE WORK OF GOD* 

At the docks in the fishing town of Capernaum, a 
company of Galileans was gathered about the great 
Teacher. The day* before, they had been with him on 
the other side of the lake and had seen the Miracle 
of the Loaves. Now they clamored for another sign, 
for more bread. And Jesus said, "Labor not for the 
meat which perisheth, but for that meat which en- 
dureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man 
shall give unto you." 

In these words he touched their sensibilities at 
several points. The hunger to which he referred was 
the hunger of sin, which at one time or another is 
present to the consciousness of every man. And they 
knew what he meant by "everlasting life"; the desire 
for it being implanted in the breasts of all. And 
when he exhorted them to "labor for" this desider- 
atum, the response was instantaneous : "What shall 
we do that we might work the works of God ?" 



*If it be asked why this subject should be treated under 
the general head of Ethics, the answer is that it marks the 
juncture of the two divisions of Christ's teaching. It is 
indeed the most important of doctrines; as Luther called it, 
Articulum Ecclesiae stantis aut cadentis. Yet no system 
of Ethics can be complete without a due consideration of 
faith, since faith is the most important of spiritual works; 
or, as Jesus called it, "The Work of God." 

(259) 



2 6o THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

"What shall we do?" This is the question with 
which men naturally meet the great problem of life. 
Sin is the universal postulate. To persuade men that 
they are sinners is carrying coals to Newcastle. 
What they want to know is what they shall do to be 
delivered from it. The dread possibilities of judg- 
ment are before us, as they were before the multitude 
at Pentecost, and the question is ever, "Men and 
brethren, what shall we do?" The gates of everlast- 
ing life, also, are open above us; what shall we do 
that we may enter in? The answer of Jesus is as 
clear, comprehensive and conclusive as language can 
make it: "This is the work of God, that ye believe 
on him whom he hath sent." The universal feeling 
is that personal effort is the sine qua non; to which 
Jesus replies, "Faith is the one only work which is 
acceptable to God" (John 6, 25-47). 

If this discourse of Jesus were the only one bear- 
ing on the Doctrine of Justification by Faith, it would 
be sufficient to confute the statement of those who 
say that this great "doctrine of a standing or a fall- 
ing church" was practically originated and certainly 
formulated by the apostles. Could that affirmation be 
substantiated, it would in nowise affect the integrity 
of the doctrine, since Jesus stood for the truth of the 
apostolic teaching when he promised that the Holy 
Ghost should "lead them into all truth," and added, 
"He that heareth you heareth me, and he that de- 
spiseth you despiseth me." But it cannot be sub- 
stantiated. The teaching of Jesus is full, clear and 
conclusive as to this fundamental truth. 

I. The primal fact in the philosophy of the spir- 
itual life, as outlined by our Lord, is that Salvation 



THE WORK OF GOD 261 

is a Gift. He speaks of eternal life as something 
"which the Son of Man shall give unto you." It is 
free. It is wholly of grace; that is, gratis. In the 
Parable of the Good Shepherd he says, "My sheep 
hear my voice and I know them and they follow me, 
and I give unto them eternal life^ (John 10,27). 

In this affirmation he controverts the two great 
ethical heresies, which were prevalent then as they 
are now. On the one hand Legalism, which asserts 
that men are saved on account of their obedience to 
the Moral Law. It is true that when a certain law- 
yer approached Jesus with the question, "What shall 
I do to inherit eternal life?" he answered, "What is 
written in the Law; how readest thou?" And when 
the man replied by quoting the Decalogue, he said 
again, "Thou hast answered right; this do and thou 
shalt live" (Lu. 10,25-28). But the fact that the 
lawyer immediately proceeded to "justify himself" 
shows that he was convicted by the very terms of 
that law. It is obvious that the words "This do, and 
thou shalt live" suggest the converse, "This do not, 
and thou shalt die." And in all the world there is 
not a man who can honestly say, "I have kept the 
law." So then by the deeds of the law shall no 
flesh be justified. For when we have done our ut- 
most we are still bound to confess that we are un- 
profitable servants, since the record of past transgres- 
sion is still uncanceled. No amount of present or 
future obedience can atone for past sin. 

The other heresy which is confuted by the words 
of Jesus in the passage referred to, is Ceremonialism ; 
that is, the proposition that we are saved by obedience 
to the Ceremonial Law. Penance, maceration, ritual 



262 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

observances, pilgrimages, bowings and genuflections 
are altogether futile. Our Lord pointed to two men 
in the attitude of prayer; one of them reciting his 
moral and ceremonial virtues, "I am not an extor- 
tioner, not unjust, not an adulterer; I fast twice in the 
week, and give tithes of all that I possess"; the other 
smiting on his breast and crying, "God be merciful 
to me a sinner!" and he said, "I tell you this man 
went down to his house justified rather than the 
other"; yet this man did nothing but beat upon his 
breast and cry "Miserere!" while the other was, in his 
own esteem, and probably in the common view, an 
observer of the whole law (Lu. 18, 9-14). 

So there is no room, obviously, in Christ's philos- 
ophy of salvation, for personal merit. Good works 
have their place and value, but not in the solution of 
the problem of justification. In commercial circles it 
is understood that there can be no valid conveyance 
of property without a just consideration; it must be 
"for value received." But here is where religion and 
commerce part company ; salvation is not for any con- 
sideration of merit, but wholly of grace. It is "with- 
out money and without price." 

II. But in the very discourse in which our Lord 
declared that salvation is a gift, he added that it must 
be labored for: "Labor for that meat which endureth 
unto everlasting life." On another occasion he said, 
"Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say 
unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able" 
(Lk. 13, 24). The word here rendered strive is liter- 
ally "agonize"; it suggests the most strenuous effort. 

How shall this fact be reconciled with the state- 
ment that salvation is free? The answer is in the 



THE WORK OF GOD 263 

words of Jesus, "This is the work of God, that ye be- 
lieve." The "labor" is faith. The "striving" is be- 
lieving. Faith in Jesus Christ is the one only accept- 
able work in the sight of God. He that would be 
saved can do no more than accept Christ as his Sa- 
viour ; and he must do no less. 

Believe! Believe! Believe! The word runs 
through the teaching of Jesus like the murmur of the 
wind through a forest. Believe in what? In Christ. 
In his Messianic claim? Yes. In his doctrine? Yes. 
In his ethics? Yes. In his holy life and vicarious 
death? Yes. In his name? Yes. In brief and sum 
total, we are to believe in him. This is "the work of 
God." 

Jesus said, "The time is fulfilled and the kingdom 
of God is at hand ; repent ye, and believe the gospel" 
(Mk. 1, 15). And again, "Go ye into all the world 
and preach the gospel to every creature. He that 
believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that 
disbelieveth shall be condemned" (Mk. 16, 15. 16). 
And again, "He that believeth on the Son is not con- 
demned; but he that believeth not is condemned al- 
ready, because he hath not believed in the name of the 
only-begotten Son of God" (John 3, 18). 

What is it to believe in him ? It is, when reduced 
to its lowest terms, to accept him as the very Son of 
God. It is to partake of him as one drinks water 
(John 4, 10-14) ; as one eats bread (John 6, 30-40). 
In all cases he is personally the object of faith; so 
that the rejection of the Son is the rejection of life 
(Matt. 21, 33-42). This is the fatal stumbling- 
block ; as he said, "Blessed is he who shall not be of- 
fended in me" (Lu. 7, 23). 



264 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

Is faith, then, a meritorious work? Not of itself. 
If it were, then salvation would still be of merit and 
not of grace: whereas it is so wholly a gift that all 
the glory must be ascribed to God. Paul says, "By 
grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of 
yourselves, it is the gift of God" (Eph. 2, 8) : and 
this is but an elaboration of what Jesus said, "No man 
can come unto me except the Father which sent me, 
draw him" (John 6, 44). And again, "No man know- 
eth who the Son is, but the Father : and who the Fa- 
ther is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will re- 
veal him" (Lu. 10, 22). And again, "Ye have not 
chosen me, but I have chosen you" (John 15, 16). 

But faith has an adventitious value through its re- 
lation to the covenant of grace. This covenant is re- 
ferred to in the sacerdotal prayer of Jesus : "Father, 
the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son 
also may glorify thee; as thou hast given him 
power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life 
to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life 
eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, 
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 
17,1-3). It thus appears that certain ones are 
"given" by the Father to the Son as the fruit of the 
travail of his soul : a fact referred to in the prophecy ; 
"When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, 
he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and 
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands; 
he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be sat- 
isfied" (Isa. 53, 10). There are three parties to this 
covenant; the Father, who gives his beloved Son for 
the salvation of men ; the Son, who agrees to endure 
the vicarious pain of the cress; and the sinner who, 



THE WORK OF GOD 265 

on his part, must consent to receive the gift of salva- 
tion through him. This acceptance is faith; so faith 
is made the condition of the effectiveness of this cove- 
nant ; and as such it is "the work of God." 

Still further, faith becomes effective through its 
appropriation of Christ. By faith a man makes 
Christ his very own; so that, his life blending with 
the life of Jesus, he shares his destiny. He becomes 
one of those "many brethren" of whom Christ is "the 
first born" ; and through him he receives the spirit of 
adoption whereby he cries, "Abba Father." This is 
life, spiritual and eternal life, "to know God and 
Jesus Christ whom he hath sent." The faith of a 
sinner is like the coupler which joins the locomotive 
to a loaded train. This coupler is of itself a vain and 
impotent thing; but when the juncture is made, it will 
draw a thousand tons. 

And faith assumes another phase of value in be- 
coming the source and inspiration of all good works. 
He who truly believes in Christ will instinctively seek 
to obey him. He who, through Christ, is brought 
into vital relations with the Father, will naturally 
strive to please him. 

On the one hand faith implies an utter renuncia- 
tion of all that savors of sin. "If any man will come 
after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and 
follow me" (Matt. 16, 24. 35). "Go, sell all that thou 
hast, and come and follow me" (Matt. 19, 21). "If 
any man come to me and hate not his father and 
mother and wife and children and brethren and sis- 
ters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my dis- 
ciple" (Lu. 14, 26) ; which is explained elsewhere in 
these words, "He that loveth father or mother more 



266 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son 
or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me; and 
he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me, 
is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall 
lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake, shall 
find it" (Matt. 10, 37-39). 

But faith is more than renunciation. On the posi- 
tive side it implies an absolute obedience. "Not every 
one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord! shall enter into 
the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of 
my Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 7, 21). This 
obedience is not rendered with a view to merit-mak- 
ing, but is a spontaneous expression of love and grati- 
tude. The life of a true believer runs along the lines 
marked out in Xavier's familiar hymn : 

"Thou, O my Jesus, thou didst me 

Upon the cross embrace; 
For me didst bear the nails and spear 

And manifold disgrace. 

Then why, O blessed Jesus Christ, 

Shall I not love thee well ? 
Not with the hope of winning heaven 

Or of escaping hell; 

"Not with the thought of gaining aught 

Or earning a reward; 
But freely, fully as Thyself 

Hast loved me, O Lord." 

III. It remains to note some of the Objections 
which are urged against this doctrine of Justification 
by Faith. It is inevitable that such objections should 
be advanced, since we are naturally unwilling to re- 
ceive something for nothing. We prefer not to be 
saved gratis; nevertheless we must be saved by grace 
or not at all. The cross is the crux of this argument ; 



THE WORK OF GOD 267 

and the cross has not ceased to be an offense since 
Paul said, "The Jews require a sign, and the Greeks 
seek after wisdom ; but we preach Christ crucified, 
unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks 
foolishness ; but unto them which are called, both 
Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the 
wisdom of God" (I Cor. 1, 22-24). 

Objection First "A salvation by faith alone an- 
tagonizes the divine truth and justice. The law is, 
'Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.' 
And God has put his seal upon that law in saying, 
'The soul that sinneth, it shall die.' " 

Answer. The Law of Retribution is interrupted 
by the higher Law of Love. But this interruption is 
not made without a complete satisfaction of justice. 
The penalty which is rightly imposed upon the sinner 
is endured by Christ, who stands as his substitute be- 
fore the offended law. "He was wounded for our 
transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities; the 
chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his 
stripes we are healed." All that he suffered was in 
our stead. No evasion is possible at this point. The 
word "vicarious" suggests a change of places. That 
which was due to the sinner is laid upon his substi- 
tute ; to wit, the penalty of sin. At the cross the law 
is satisfied, justice is vindicated and God is enabled to 
be "just and the justifier of the ungodly." Thus 
"Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and 
peace have kissed each other" (Ps. 85, 10). 

Objection Second. "The love of God is so infinite 
that it requires no expiation. 'As I live, saith the 
Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, 
but that all should turn unto me and live.' " 



268 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

Answer. If it were possible for God to forgive 
without any satisfaction rendered to justice, which is 
doubted, such a salvation would not go far enough. 
A man would in that case go out into eternity as a 
ticket-of-leave man; delivered from prison, indeed, 
but merely on suspension of sentence. It is not suffi- 
cient that our guilt should be overlooked; it must be 
removed; and it can only be removed by expiation. 
Salvation is not like a bankrupt act ; it is the cancella- 
tion of debt. Guilt is "blotted out." It is cast into 
the depths of an unfathomable sea. It is put behind 
the back of God, so that he remembers it no more 
against us. So Paul says, "You hath he quickened 
together with him, having forgiven us all our tres- 
passes; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances 
that was against us, which was contrary to us, taking 
it out of the way, nailing it to the cross" (Col. 2, 

13- 14). 

Objection Third. The saving power is not in the 
death but in the exemplary life of Jesus. 

Answer. If this were true, then there is no sig- 
nificance in the constant emphasis which prophecy 
puts upon the necessity, of Messiah's death; and the 
rites and ceremonies of the Jewish economy, which 
were everywhere stained with blood, meant nothing at 
all. In the teaching of our Lord he profoundly em- 
phasizes the truth of these prophecies and their ful- 
filment in his passion. The red pathway of blood, 
which began at the protevangel and ran clear through 
to the visions of Malachi, is continued in the New 
Testament from the song, of Simeon (Lu. 2, 34. 35) 
to the triumphant hymn of the redeemed in glory 
(Rev. 5,9. 10). 



THE WORK OF GOD 269 

Our Lord began his teaching with the announce- 
ment of his death, saying, "As Moses lifted up the 
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of 
man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3, 
14. 15). — On the Mount of Transfiguration, in con- 
ference with Moses and Elijah, when he would natur- 
ally be supposed to dwell upon the most important 
theme in connection with his earthly life and mission, 
he spoke with them of "his decease which he should 
accomplish at Jerusalem" (Lu. 9, 31). — In his con- 
versation with Zebedee's sons he asked, "Are ye able 
to drink the cup which I shall drink and to be baptized 
with the baptism which I am baptized with?" and he 
explained this "cup" and "baptism" by saying: "The 
Son of man cometh not to be ministered unto, but to 
minister and to give his life a ransom for many" 
(Matt. 20, 22-28). 

On his last journey through Caesarea-Philippi, 
when his face was set steadfastly toward the 
cross, he said plainly to his disciples that he must 
go to Jerusalem, suffer many things and be crucified ; 
and when Peter exclaimed, "Be it far from thee, 
Lord; this shall not be unto thee!" he said, "Get thee 
behind me, Satan; thou art an offence unto me; for 
thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those 
that be of men" (Matt. 16, 21-23). These words of 
Peter recall the third temptation of Jesus in the wil- 
derness, in which his adversary proposed to give him 
the kingdoms of the world for a single act of hom- 
age, thus obviating the necessity of enduring the cross 
(Matt. 4,8-10). This is ever a Satanic suggestion, 
proceeding not from divine wisdom, but from human 



270 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

policy ; that is, "savoring not the things that be of God 
but those that be of men." All through the life of 
Jesus this was the great temptation constantly resist- 
ed, — to reach the kingdom in some other way than by 
dying for it. 

On the night before his crucifixion he insti- 
tuted the Lord's Supper; an ordinance which has 
no significance whatsoever, unless the power of salva- 
tion is in the vicarious death of Christ. "He took 
bread and brake it, and gave to his disciples, saying, 
This is my body, which is given for you ; and he took 
the cup and gave it unto them, saying, This is my 
blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many 
for the remission of sins" (Matt. 26, 26-28). Here 
is a manifest reference to the sin-offering in which 
half the blood was sprinkled on the altar and the 
other on the congregation of the people ; an ordinance 
which is known as "the Covenant of Blood" (Ex. 24, 
6-8). — In the garden, when Peter drew his sword to 
defend Jesus from those who had come to arrest him, 
he said, "Put up thy sword! Thinkest thou that I 
cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently 
give me more than twelve legions of angels? But 
how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it 
must be?" (Matt. 26, 52-54). — On the cross, when the 
rulers derided him, saying, "He saved others, let him 
save himself, if he be the Christ, the chosen of God !" 
he patiently suffered on; because it was not possible 
for him to save himself and, at the same time, save 
sinful men (Lu. 23, 35). He must die, or they must 
die. — And when the great tragedy was over and his 
disciples were still in doubt as to the full significance 
of his death, he said, "O fools and slow of heart to be- 



THE WORK OF GOD 271 

lieve all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not 
Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into 
his glory ?" (Lu. 24, 26. 27). 

Thus all along his ministry he emphasized the ne- 
cessity of his cup of suffering and his baptism of 
blood. And thereon he laid the foundation of the 
great propaganda, when he said, "Thus it is written, 
and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from 
the dead the third day; and that repentance and re- 
mission of sins should be preached in his name among 
all nations, beginning at Jerusalem" (Lu. 24, 46. 47). 

Objection Fourth. The innocent cannot suffer for 
the guilty. 

Answer. The proposition does not hold. The in- 
nocent are suffering for the guilty everywhere and all 
the while. Parents are suffering for their children, 
kings for their subjects, friend for friend. The larg- 
est portion of our pain is not our own. And the 
noblest thing in human nature is this capacity of sym- 
pathy. At this point the human touches the divine. 
It would be passing strange if the Heavenly Father 
were lacking in that which so endears his children to 
one another. Nay, the cross is precisely what we 
should expect of God. 

But how can the benefit of this vicarious pain be 
justly placed to our credit? Let it be remembered that 
there are three parties to the covenant of grace, and 
three only. If the Father is willing to give his be- 
loved Son to suffering and death ; if the Son is willing 
to endure the passion of the cross in the sinner's be- 
half; and if the sinner, who is the party of the third 
part, yields an assent by faith; where in all the uni- 



272 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

verse is there a being who is competent to enter an 
objection? Or on what ground could he enter it? 

By way of practical application, now, there are 
certain questions which address themselves to every 
earnest soul. First: if this great doctrine of Justifi- 
cation by Faith is true, does it not precisely meet the 
deepest longing of humanity? Is it not just what the 
sinner wants? Or, as Coleridge would say, Does it 
not "find" him? 

Second: is there any other way of escape from sin? 
There are many systems, but where in any of the 
world's religions or philosophies is there a suggestion 
for blotting out the record of the mislived past ? This 
is what the Gospel proposes to do: "Though your 
sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; 
though they be red like crimson, they shall be as 
wool." If there be any other plan, I know it not. 

"Lift up thy hand, O bleeding Lord ! 

Unseal the cleansing tide ! 
We have no shelter from our sin 

But in thy wounded side." 

And third: How shall we escape if we neglect so 
great salvation? This is the unanswerable question. 
The rejection of Christ is the unpardonable sin, in that 
it refuses the proffer, which is constantly being made 
by the Holy Spirit, of the benefit of the cleansing 
blood. If there is the remotest possibility that this 
doctrine of Justification by Faith is true, it behooves a 
thoughtful man to think long and earnestly before he 
rejects it. 



LAST THINGS 



XXII 
MARANATHA 



XXII 
MARANATHA 

If the teaching of Jesus as to his Second Coming 
has a vague and uncertain sound, it must be remem- 
bered that all prophecy is of that character, in the 
necessity of the case. The purpose of prophecy is 
not to set forth coming events with such exactness as 
would dispense with the necessity of faith. It aims 
not to gratify curiosity, but to awaken expectancy 
and desire. Thus there is concealment in the very 
process of revealing; so that the soul awaiting the 
denouement with eagerness, cries when it comes: 
"How clear! And how could I fail to perceive it?" 

To this end the narrative of prophecy is oftentimes 
complex by design, two or more events being inextri- 
cably mingled. As in Japanese art, there is a clear 
outline but little or no regard for perspective. The 
near and the distant seem as twin peaks of a single 
mountain, though there may be centuries between 
them. In the Messianic Psalms, for example, there is 
frequently an immediate reference to David with a re- 
moter one to "David's greater Son." 

The First Coming of Christ was predicted in terms 
so minute and particular that, as we look backward 
now, we wonder how any could have failed to inter- 
pret them ; yet there was probably not a single soul 
in Israel, prior to the Incarnation, that clearly under- 

(27s) 



276 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

stood them. The reason is obvious : these predictions 
were designedly enigmatic, so that the face of the 
Messiah was ever looking out as from behind a lat- 
tice. It was announced that he would be the seed of 
woman, yet the veritable Son of God; poor, yet mak- 
ing many rich ; chief est among ten thousand and alto- 
gether lovely, yet a root out of a dry ground, without 
form or comeliness; a man of sorrows and acquaint- 
ed with grief, yet Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty 
God, the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace ; 
mocked, scourged, spit upon, put to an ignominious 
death, yet possessed of universal dominion and ruling 
his enemies with a rod of iron; led as a sheep to the 
slaughter, yet treading the wine-press of the wrath 
of God. What paradoxes are here! What enigmas! 
Here is a passing to and fro of various figures, a 
blending of the near and far, an interweaving of ap- 
parent contradictions which puts exact interpretation 
out of the question until the Incarnation shall make 
all clear. 

We should naturally expect to find something of 
the same sort in prophetic utterances as to the Second 
Coming of Christ. His great Parousia discourse 
(Matt. 24 and 25) was addressed to the disciples in 
answer to three questions ; namely, "When shall the 
Temple be destroyed ?", "What shall be the sign of 
thy coming ?", and "When shall the end of the world 
be?" In this discourse the three events referred to 
are inextricably blended; and, while this is precisely 
what we should look for, it is a singular fact that it 
has occasioned, in some quarters, a practical rejection 
of the truth. There are those who, being unable to 
disentangle the mingled threads, insist that Christ 



MARANATHA 277 

himself was in doubt, and that his apostles, who af- 
terward wrote concerning the same matter "as they 
were moved by the Holy Ghost," rested under a mis- 
apprehension as to the time and manner of his ap- 
pearing. Yet if there is any force in analogy, these 
prophecies of the Second Coming should, like those 
of the First Coming, be incapable of clear solution 
until the occurrence of the event. The fact that, in 
the course of passing years, hope deferred would give 
rise to unbelief was distinctly foretold; as where 
Peter says, "There shall come in the last days scoffers, 
walking after their own desires, and saying, Where 
is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers 
fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the 
beginning of the world. But, beloved, be not igno- 
rant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord 
as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some 
men count slackness ; but is long suffering to usward, 
not willing that any should perish, but that all should 
come unto repentance. Wherefore, seeing that ye 
know these things before, beware lest ye also, being 
led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your 
own steadfastness" (2 Pet. 3, 3-18). 

But there are some things in these promises, which 
may be clearly known and affirmed with certainty. 
We are not prepared to fall in with those who, fasci- 
nated by the occult, profess to be able to interpret 
such prophecies as accurately as if they were a record 
of the past. We are bound, however, and with this 
let us be content, to accept so much of the outline as 
is clearly presented to our view. 

To begin with, we may be quite confident that the 



278 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

Second Coming is a Foreordained and Certain Fact. 
Not only so, it is a fact of immense importance to the 
practical life of Christ's followers; else would he not 
have emphasized it as he did. And here we note a 
distinct loss to the Christian thought and experience 
of our time. It was natural, no doubt, that the early- 
Christians should make much of the Second Coming. 
They were so near to Christ's earthly life; they had 
suffered so much for their devotion to him; they saw 
so many of their friends led to martyrdom for the 
truth's sake; they prayed so earnestly for vindication, 
crying, "O Lord, how long?" Hid in the catacombs 
and among the fastnesses of the hills, they strength- 
ened one another by the hope of his appearing. Their 
morning greeting was Maranatha! "The Lord Com- 
eth!" It was inevitable, perhaps, that in the course 
of centuries the edge of this desire and expectancy 
should wear off. But this, I say, is a distinct loss. 
It is greatly to be feared that many Christians waive 
all consideration of this important doctrine, because 
it is difficult to understand, and so lose the inspira- 
tion that should come from it. There is no room for 
question as to the mind of Jesus. Over and over 
again he admonishes us to be on the qui vive. He 
would have us ever watchful and prayerful in view of 
it. The words of the apostles, also, concerning this 
event are to be received as no less trustworthy than 
those of Jesus himself, since they were written by the 
inspiration of the Spirit, of whom he said, "He shall 
lead you into all truth," and verified by his own state- 
ment, "He that heareth you, heareth me." We are, 
therefore, bound to believe what they said precisely 
as if Christ himself had said it. 



MARANATHA 279 

We are not at liberty to explain away the prophe- 
cies of his final appearing by saying that they are 
fulfilled in his coming from day to day. It is true 
that Christ comes in many ways. There is his gra- 
cious coming; as when he draws near to the sinner 
seeking pardon and to the Christian desiring new 
measures of grace: "If a man love me, he will keep 
my words ; and my Father will love him, and we will 
come unto him and make our abode with him" (John 
14, 22. 23). And there is his sympathetic coming, to 
those who are passing through the valley of Baca: 
"I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you" 
(John 14, 18). And there is his dynamic or adminis- 
trative coming; "All power is given to me in heaven 
and in earth; go ye, therefore, and teach all nations 
and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of 
the present order of things" (Matt. 28, 18-20). And 
there is, also, his coming at death; a fact exemplified 
at many bedsides where failing voices murmur, "Yea 
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of 
death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me." But 
beyond these and above them all, there is his final, 
apocalyptic coming : a fact indubitable ; the focal point 
of history and the consummation of all earthly events ; 
of which we sing: 

"Lo, he comes with clouds descending, 
Once for favored sinners slain; 
Thousand thousand saints attending 
Swell the triumph of his train. 
Hallelujah! 
God appears on earth to reign!" 

We shall be helped to a clear understanding of our 
Lord's method in these apocalyptic predictions by tak- 



2 8o THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

ing note of two movements in nature and grace. In 
nature these movements are known as Evolution and 
Catastrophism. All things advance by the calm pro- 
cesses of natural law for years or centuries, until, on a 
sudden, there occurs a mighty convulsion, an up- 
heaval of the elements, by which the face of nature 
is transformed in a single day. So in history: the 
procession of causes and effects goes on for a while 
as steadily as the recurrence of the tides or the revo- 
lution of the stars. Then suddenly there comes a 
revolutionary event, such as the conversion of Con- 
stantine, the signing of Magna Charta, the Reforma- 
tion, Waterloo, the discovery of Printing, the sailing 
of the Pinta ; and, lo ! a century of history is made in 
a brief period of time. 

Now Christ in the prophecies of the coming of 
his kingdom has reference to both of these move- 
ments. He sets forth Evolution in the Parables of 
the Leaven and the Mustard-seed; in which the laws 
of the moral universe are represented as subsidizing 
all things to the final consummation. The kingdom 
rises, like Solomon's temple, without the sound of 
hammer or of ax. But here and there along the way 
are convulsionary events which leap over centuries. 
Such was the miracle of Pentecost, by which three 
thousand souls were added to the Church in a single 
day. It is probable that this was in the mind of Jesus 
when he said, "Verily I say unto you, There be some 
standing here, which shall not taste of death, until 
they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom" 
(Matt. 16,28). For Pentecost was, indeed, the trum- 
pet blast that gave the signal for the advance to the 
conquest of the world. 



MARANATHA 281 

Another of these overturnings was the destruction 
of Jerusalem, with its awful signs of "blood and fire 
and vapor and smoke." It may be that, in the pro- 
phetic blending of near and distant events, our Lord 
referred to this when he said, "Verily, I say unto you, 
This generation shall not pass away till all these 
things be fulfilled ,, (Matt. 24,34). It was an utter 
ignorance of this canon of prophetic interpretation 
which led Gibbon to insist that Christ expected the 
world to come to an immediate end. In such pas- 
sages as this: "When ye shall see the abomination 
of desolation standing in the holy place, then let them 
which be in Judaea flee into the mountains" (Matt. 
24, 15), it is obvious that the reference is to the de- 
struction of Jerusalem and not to the remoter coming 
of the Kingdom of Christ. But above all these con- 
fusions the ultimate fact stands out like the loftiest 
peak in an Alpine landscape: "When the Son of 
Man shall come in the clouds of heaven with power 
and great glory !" Then shall be brought to pass the 
prophetic vision of Daniel in which he saw the thrones 
of the Great Powers rising, flourishing, tottering to 
their fall, and succeeded by the throne of the Ancient 
of Days, "to whom was given dominion and glory 
and a kingdom, that all peoples and nations and lan- 
guages should serve him" (Daniel 7, 1-14). 

But further, the teachings of Jesus entitle us to 
speak with confidence as to the Manner of his Com- 
ing. It is written that when the disciples, on the 
Mount of Olives, followed him with eager eyes as he 
ascended into the heavens, "Behold, two men stood by 
them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of 
Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This 



282 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

same Jesus which is taken from you shall so come in 
like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven" 
(Acts i, 9. 10). "He shall so come." And Jesus 
himself makes his meaning clear. 

"Ye shall see him come :" hisce oculis; "with these 
eyes!" (Matt. 24, 30). — He shall come in the clouds 
of heaven. So Paul : "The Lord shall descend from 
heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, 
and with the trump of God : then we which are alive 
and remain, shall be caught up; so shall we ever be 
with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4, 16). — He shall come with 
a retinue of angels; angels, archangels and saints tri- 
umphant ! Never was king followed by a retinue like 
this! The waiting church shall join with the rejoic- 
ing hosts of heaven to welcome him to his glorious 
reign among the children of men. 

We are advised that his advent will be accompa- 
nied by three stupendous events. One of them is the 
Resurrection of the Dead : "For the hour is coming in 
which all who are in the grave shall hear his voice 
and shall come forth" (John 5, 28). The saints "who 
are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord 
shall not prevent them who are asleep; for the dead 
in Christ shall rise first (that is, before the transla- 
tion of the living saints) ; then we which are alive 
and remain shall be caught up together with them in 
the clouds to meet the Lord in the air" (I Thess. 

4, 15-17). 

The second of these concomitant events is the 
Judgment. The Lord, appearing in the clouds of 
heaven, shall take his place upon his throne ; the risen 
dead shall appear before him; and he shall separate 
them "as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the 



MARANATHA 283 

goats"; saying to those on his right hand, "Come ye 
blessed of my Father," and to those on his left, "De- 
part from me." 

And the third event is "the End of the World" ; as 
Peter says, "The heavens shall pass away with a great 
noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; 
the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall 
be burned up" (2 Pet. 3, 10). The purpose of this 
conflagration would appear to be not destruction but 
purification; since it is to be followed by "the new 
heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth right- 
eousness"; of which it is written, "The tabernacle of 
God shall be among men ; and he will dwell with them 
and they shall be his people ; and God himself shall be 
with them and be their God." 

As to the time of this glorious coming of Christ 
we are left wholly in uncertainty. On the last 
day of his earthly life he was asked by his disciples, 
"Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the 
kingdom to Israel?" And he said unto them, "It is 
not for you to know the times or seasons which the 
Father hath put within his own power" (Acts 1, 6. 7). 

He elsewhere says that he himself did not know 
the time of this event: "But of that day and hour 
knoweth no man, no not the angels in heaven, neither 
the Son, but the Father" (Mark 13, 32). In his state 
of humiliation he had laid aside the exercise of his 
divine attributes, except so far as they were necessary 
to the accomplishment of his redemptive work. This 
was a part of that "emptying" which occurred when 
he took flesh upon him. The time of his Second Com- 
ing was one of the things which he chose not to know. 
This being so, it is impossible, on the one hand, that 



284 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

he should have believed his coming to be in the im- 
mediate future, as some assert; or, on the other hand, 
that he should have intended us to know the exact 
time of it. 

But if it were impossible that his disciples should 
know, it follows that it is useless for us to speculate 
about it. Why then should we call ourselves "Pre- 
millenarians" or "Postmillenarians" ; since it is im- 
possible for us to tell (even within a thousand years) 
the time of his appearing? The sole reference to the 
Millennium (Rev. 20, 1-8) is not such as to warrant 
a chronological dogma. To those who undertake to 
draw definite conclusions from designedly indefinite 
expressions, such as "generations," "time and times 
and half a time," there is a sufficient answer, "The 
kingdom of God cometh not with observation." And 
"if any man say, Lo here or Lo there, believe him 
not." 

But this is certain : the Second Coming, whenever 
it occurs, will be sudden and unexpected; "for as the 
lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even 
unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son 
of man be" (Matt. 24, 2j). And "as it was in the 
days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the 
Son of man; they did eat, they drank, they married 
wives, they were given in marriage, until the day 
that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came 
and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the 
day when the Son of man is revealed" (Luke 17, 
26-30). The same truth is set forth in the Parable 
of the Ten Virgins; "Watch, therefore, for ye know 
neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man 
cometh" (Matt. 25, 13) ; in the Parable of the Pounds 



MARANATHA 285 

(Matt. 25, 14-31) ; and of the Goodman whose house 
was broken up (Matt. 24, 43). "For yourselves know 
perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a 
thief in the night" (I Thess. 5, 2). 

But while we are left in such uncertainty as to 
the precise time of our Lord's coming, we are definite- 
ly informed that it is to be preceded by certain signs. 
One of these is a spiritual ebb-tide: "For the day 
shall not come except there come a falling away first, 
and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition ; 
who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is 
called God, or that is worshipped ; so that he, as God, 
sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he 
is God" (1 Thess. 2, 3. 4). The Antichrist, here re- 
ferred to, has been variously interpreted, at different 
times, as Popery, Arianism, the spiritual indifference 
of the Dark Ages, the prevalent infidelity at the clos- 
ing in of the eighteenth century, the hostility to the 
Scriptures at the present time, and in other ways. 

Another of the signs antecedent to the triumphal 
advent of Christ is the universal diffusion of the gos- 
pel; as he said, "The gospel of the kingdom shall be 
preached in all the world for a witness unto all na- 
tions; and then shall the end come" (Matt. 24, 14). 
It is an impressive and suggestive thought that Christ 
delays his coming until his people shall have fulfilled 
their great commission; "Go ye into all the world and 
evangelize." 

The last sign is the conversion of the Jews. Our 
Lord wept over Jerusalem, saying, "Behold, your 
house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, 
Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, 
'Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord' " 



286 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

(Matt. 23, 38. 39). On the third day prior to this 
utterance Jesus had made his triumphal entry into 
Jerusalem and the Jews had caviled at those who 
cried, "Hosanna, to the Son of David!" He here 
gives us to understand that at his final coming the 
Jews themselves shall join in the universal acclama- 
tions to Jesus as the Christ. 

What are the practical lessons? We are to be- 
lieve in the certainty of this event. A crown of right- 
eousness awaits those who "love his appearing" (2 
Tim. 4, 8). — We are to watch for it with great ex- 
pectancy. Watch! Watch! Watch! How the word 
rings through the teachings of Jesus ! How it shines 
like a warning beacon on the heights ! — And we are to 
do our utmost by faithful service to speed the com- 
ing day. "Seeing then that all these things shall be 
dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in 
all godliness ; looking for and hasting unto the coming 
of the day of God?" (2 Pet. 3, 11). The Bridegroom 
will not come until his Bride is ready for the nuptials. 
He must claim her "without spot or blemish or any 
such thing." He bends over her, as she lies sleeping 
in the city gates, unmindful of her covenant, and 
cries, "Awake, awake, O daughter of Zion! Shake 
thyself from the dust! Loose thyself from the bands 
of thy neck and put on thy beautiful garments!" 
When the church is ready, her Lord will come; the 
feast will be spread and the voice of the angel will be 
heard, saying, "All things are ready; come to the 
marriage !" 

I do not believe, however, that Christ will forever 
wait upon the slow methods of his people. When they 
shall have shown a realizing sense of their high privi- 



MARANATHA 287 

lege and solemn responsibilities as expressed in their 
great commission ; when they shall all with one accord 
go forth to occupy strategic points and carry the Gospel 
to the uttermost parts of the earth, he will doubtless 
make bare his arm and interpose to bring in "the res- 
titution of all things." Will there be another Pente- 
cost, a stupendous Pentecost, in which not three thou- 
sand souls but nations shall be converted in a day? 
When that occurs Maranatha will be taken out of 
prophecy and put into history. Those that are 
alive and remain upon the earth will see the heavens 
part asunder and cry, "Behold, the Lord is here!" 
Then none shall need to say, "Know thou the Lord !" 
The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad be- 
cause of him. The desert shall rejoice and blossom 
as the rose. The trees of the field shall clap their 
hands before him. Souls will come flocking to him 
as doves to their windows. The flocks of Kedar shall 
be gathered together unto him ; the rams of Nebaioth 
shall minister unto him; the isles shall wait for him. 
The ships of Tarshish shall come, bringing the silver 
and gold with them, unto the name of the Lord their 
God. And his glory shall cover the earth as the 
waters cover the sea. 



XXIII 
THE RESURRECTION 



XXIII 
THE RESURRECTION 

The universality of the teaching of Jesus is a 
source of constant surprise. It touches every point 
in the horizon of human life. It embraces a complete 
system of doctrine and ethics. This Man was a handi- 
craftsman, untaught in the curriculum of the schools ; 
yet what philosophy is here! His discourses were 
few and brief; yet how comprehensive! He wrote 
no book nor treatise, his words being transmitted by 
a chosen group of his disciples to succeeding ages; 
yet, in comparison, the voluminous writings of other 
sacred teachers are mere tractates on fractions of 
truth. 

This is not to say that every truth, in doctrine and 
ethics, was set forth by Jesus in extenso. For ob- 
vious reasons, this was both impossible and unne- 
cessary. He frankly said to his disciples that some 
things were held in reserve because they were not 
able to bear them as yet. It is obvious that their full 
presentation would have prejudiced his case not only 
with his disciples but with others whom he sought to 
win. Such was the doctrine of the Resurrection, 
which he set forth in mere outline; leaving it to be 
filled out subsequently in detail and particular by 

(289) 



2 9 o THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

apostles who were to write inerrantly under the con- 
trol of the Spirit of God. 

Nor was it necessary that this doctrine of the Res- 
urrection should at that time be presented in full; 
since it was commonly held among all nations as a 
necessary conclusion from the analogy of nature. 
Mors janua vitcz was a Roman proverb. The Greeks 
were accustomed to place an obolus under the tongue 
of one dead, to pay his ferriage across the Styx. The 
Egyptian custom of mummying the dead was due to a 
belief that their bodies would be needed and called for 
in the future life. The same opinion was generally 
entertained by the Jews, being in line with the plain 
teaching of their Scriptures; though the Sadducees, 
the freethinkers of that time, denied it. 

On the last day of Christ's public ministry a dele- 
gation of these Sadducees approached him with one 
of their stock questions, the Problem of the Sevenfold 
Widow. It was on this wise: A woman had mar- 
ried seven brothers in succession, all of whom were 
dead; "Now in the resurrection, whose wife shall 
she be of the seven ?" The answer of Jesus was brief 
but comprehensive. He reminded them that carnal 
relations would obviously be impossible in the spir- 
itual life; and charged them with a twofold error in 
not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God 
(Matt. 22, 23-33). 

As to the Scriptures, one quotation sufficed him: 
"Have ye not read how God spake to Moses from the 
burning bush, I am the God of Abraham and the God 
of Isaac and the God of Jacob ? God is not the God 
of the dead, but of the living" (Matt. 22, 31. 32). 
The words addressed to Moses referred to a covenant 



THE RESURRECTION 291 

with the Patriarchs : but is it not clear that God enters 
into covenant not with perishable birds and beasts and 
creeping things, but with immortal men? No doubt 
ocher passages might have been adduced; but inas- 
much as Jesus received the Scriptures as ultimate au- 
tno/ity, a single unequivocal excerpt was conclusive 
and enough for him. 

The second error of the Sadducees was still more 
fatal to a just apprehension of truth : "Ye know not 
the power of God." The doctrine of the Resurrec- 
tion is confessedly beset by real difficulties, the same 
being true of every spiritual fact: but the Gordian 
knot is cut by faith in the omnipotence of God, of 
whom it is written, "Nothing is too hard for him/' 
The Sadducees were not alone in their suggestion of 
practical "absurdities" in the doctrine. The free- 
thinkers of our time speak in precisely the same way. 
— A man is eaten by a lion ; the lion dies in the desert 
and his carcass fertilizes the roots of a palm-tree; a 
troop of Bedouins coming that way gather the dates 
of the palm and carry them to the uttermost parts of 
the earth; is it to be supposed, now, that the scat- 
tered atoms of that dead man are to be reassembled in 
the great day? But why not? Is the God who cre- 
ated the body out of nothing unable to reconstruct it ? 
Can He who originally lit the flame not rekindle it? 
His wisdom and power are immeasurable. "Ye do 
err, not knowing the power of God!" 

There is one class of passages in the teaching of 
Jesus which superficially seem to allow the thought 
of conditional immortality. As when he said to the 
people, after the miracle of the loaves, "I am the 
bread of life ; he that cometh to me shall never hunger, 



292 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. And 
this is the will of him that sent me, that every one 
which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have 
everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last 
day." — And again, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, 
Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink 
his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my 
flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I 
will raise him up at the last day" (John 6, 40-54). 
This group of passages is much quoted by those who 
assert that the death which is to be inflicted upon the 
ungodly is literal death — that is, annihilation or ex- 
tinction ; and that the resurrection with subsequent im- 
mortality is exclusively for those who believe on 
Christ. Let it be observed, however, that our Lord 
makes no assertion whatever as to the impenitent in 
the discourse referred to, but leaves the way open 
for other words. And it is a just and common rule 
of interpretation that one portion of Scripture is to be 
understood by comparison with another. Did Christ 
then have anything else to say, as to the destiny of 
those who do not believe in him? 

In his address to those who found fault with the 
healing of the cripple at Bethesda on the Sabbath, he 
emphasized his authority as the indubitable Son of 
God, adding, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour 
is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the 
voice of the Son of God ; and they that hear shall live. 
For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he 
given to the Son to have life in himself; and hath 
given him authority to execute judgment also, be- 
cause he is the Son of Man. Marvel not at this: for 
the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the 



THE RESURRECTION 293 

graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth ; 
they that have done good, unto the resurrection of 
life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrec- 
tion of damnation'' (John 5,25-29). 

He here teaches that "all" are to be raised from 
the dead: as Daniel said, "Some to everlasting life 
and some to shame and everlasting contempt"; and 
as John the Evangelist intimated, "I saw the dead, 
small and great, stand before God." The words of 
Jesus elsewhere are to the same effect; "When the 
Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy 
angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne 
of his glory ; and before him shall be gathered all na- 
tions; and he shall separate them one from another, 
as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and 
he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats 
on his left. Then shall the King say unto them on his 
right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit 
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of 
the world. And he shall say unto them on his left 
hand, Depart from me into everlasting fire, prepared 
for the devil and his angels. And these shall go away 
into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into 
life eternal" (Matt. 25, 31-46). 

We are led to infer also that the Resurrection is to 
occur at a definite time. He says, "The hour com- 
eth." He speaks of "the day" and "the great day." 
It is a narrow and wizened sort of interpretation that 
would limit this time to the small dimensions of a 
solar day. Let it suffice that there is to be a definite 
occasion when the multitudinous army of the earth's 
population shall simultaneously come forth from the 
sepulchers of the ages. 



294 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

"Great God! What do I see and hear? 

The end of things created; 
The Judge of all mankind appear 

On clouds of glory seated ! 
The trumpet sounds, the graves restore 

The dead whom they contained before: 
Prepare my soul to meet Him \" 

It is clear also that Christ teaches the resurrec- 
tion of the body. All "who are in their graves" are 
to come forth. No mode of interpretation can suc- 
cessfully explain away the fact that there is a real 
connection of some sort between the body that goes 
into the grave and that which comes out of it. The 
word "resurrection" is meaningless, except in this 
view. It will not do to say that there is only a spirit- 
ual resurrection. Something "rises." What is it? 
We do not affirm that every atom which enters into 
the physical frame is to be used in the structure of 
the resurrection body; but at the least we are bound 
to say that the body which is laid away in the grave 
furnishes the germ of that which shall be. This is 
the proposition for which Paul contends : "But some 
man will say, How are the dead raised up? And 
with what body do they come? Thou fool, that 
which thou sowest is not quickened except it die: and 
that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body 
which shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of 
wheat or of some other grain: but God giveth it a 
body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed its own 
body" (I Cor. 15, 35-50). The farmer does not plant 
a stalk with leaves and bending head, but a grain of 
wheat, whose identity is preserved in the stalk grow- 
ing out of it. The important matter is that the vital 
connection shall be kept up. The emphasis is upon 



THE RESURRECTION 295 

the words, "to every seed its own body." It is im- 
possible to conceive how the statement of Christ, as 
thus elaborated by Paul, can be received by those who 
deny a physical resurrection. It is frequently said 
that Christ "laid no stress on the resurrection of the 
body." True, he did not multiply words concerning 
it; but in his statement as to the dead coming forth 
out of their graves, he distinctly and undeniably af- 
firmed it. Furthermore, he stood sponsor for all that 
Paul and the other apostles were to say concerning it. 
And in this he pressed home the analogy of nature 
and touched a sensitive chord in the universal heart. 

"The insentient seed, 

Buried beneath the earth, 

Starts from its dusty bed, 

Responsive to the voice of Spring 

And covers mead and mountain, 

Fields and forests, with its life. 

Myriads of creatures, too, that lay 

As dead as dust on every inch of ground, 

Touched by the vernal ray, 

Spring from their little graves, and sport 

On beauteous wings in fields of sunnied air. 

Shall this be so? Shall plants and worms 

Come forth to life again? And O, shall man 

Descend into the grave to rise no more? 

Shall he, the master of the world, 

Image and offspring of the fontal life, 

Through endless ages sleep in dust?" 

We come now to the teachings of Christ at the 
grave of Lazarus (John 11, 1-44). Our Lord said 
to the bereaved sisters, "Your brother shall rise 
again"; to which Martha answered, "I know that he 
shall rise again at the last day." Then Jesus said, 
"I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth 



296 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live ; and 
whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never 
die." These words contain a side reference to that 
spiritual resurrection which is here and now, in the 
revivifying of souls dead in trespasses and sins; 
but they have a distinct bearing also on the final 
resurrection. The raising of Lazarus was a foregleam 
and prophecy of that which is to occur at the great day. 
The man who could create a blade of grass would 
demonstrate his power to make a meadow. The sci- 
entist who in his laboratory could mould one single 
luminous sphere, develop it to massive proportions 
and fling it out upon its orbit in infinite space, would 
prove his power to make a universe. By the same 
token, he who raised Lazarus from the dead gave 
evidence of his ability to quicken the vast multitude 
who repose in God's acre. The complement of that 
miracle is in the vision of Ezekiel: "I stood in the 
midst of the valley which was full of bones; and, lo, 
they were very dry. And the Lord said unto me, 
Can these bones live? I answered, Thou knowest. 
And he said, Prophesy unto the wind, Thus saith the 
Lord, Come from the four winds, O breath, and 
breathe upon these slain, that they may live! And I 
prophesied as he commanded me; and, behold, they 
stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army" (Ez. 
37> i-io). 

All the teaching of Jesus with respect to this doc- 
trine is strongly fortified by what he has to say con- 
cerning his own triumph over death. On being asked 
for a sign, he said, "Destroy this temple and in three 
days I will raise it up" ; and it is added, "He spake of 
the temple of his body" (John 2, 18-21). And when 



THE RESURRECTION 297 

again a sign was called for, he answered, "An evil 
and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and 
there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of 
the prophet Jonas; for as Jonas was three days and 
three nights in the whale's belly; so shall also the 
Son of Man be three days and three nights in the 
heart of the earth" (Mar. 12,38-40). At other times 
he spoke yet more plainly ; as when he said to his dis- 
ciples, "The Son of Man shall be betrayed into the 
hands of men, and they shall kill him, and the third 
day he shall be raised again" (Matt. 16,21; 17, 23; 
20, 19; Mk. 8, 31). 

It is true that these predictions were not under- 
stood at the time by his disciples (Mark 9, 9. 10) ; 
but they were remembered after his crucifixion (Lu. 
24, 5-8). And his enemies also recalled them; the 
day after the crucifixion they came to Pilate saying, 
"Sir, we remember that this deceiver said, while he 
was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Com- 
mand, therefore, that the sepulcher be made sure un- 
til the third day, lest his disciples come by night and 
steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen 
from the dead" (Matt. 2.7, 63. 64). The watch was 
thus secured, and sepulcher was closed with the im- 
perial seal. The sentinels on that memorable night 
were at their post, when a light flashed out of heaven 
and they fell as dead men. The stone was rolled 
away from the sepulcher and Jesus came forth, wiping 
the death-dew from his forehead. A troop of angels 
thronged his chariot wheels and bore him aloft, while 
heaven resounded with the cry, "Lift up your heads, 
O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and 
the King of Glory shall come in !" 



298 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

And because he liveth we shall live also. It is im- 
possible to emphasize too deeply the vital connection 
between the physical resurrection of Jesus and our 
own. We may not say that his resurrection is the 
effective cause of ours ; but its evidential value is im- 
measurable. The assurance of our resurrection is in 
the fact that he "brake the bands of death." The 
sheaf of wheat which was brought by the Jewish 
farmer to the Temple as an offering of the first fruits 
was a prophecy of the full ingathering of the harvest. 
So Sir Walter Raleigh, on the night before his execu- 
tion, strengthened his faith against the hour of disso- 
lution, in these words: "I have recalled the wisdom 
of Plato and Socrates in vain: my only assurance is 
in the resurrection of Christ." That same night he 
wrote in his prayer-book : 

"E'en such is Time that takes in trust 
Our youth, our joys and all we have, 

And pays us back in sordid dust; 
Who in the dark and silent grave, 

When we have lived out all our ways, 

Shuts up the story of our days. 

But from this earth, this grave, this dust, 

My God will raise me up, I trust !" 

It would be quite proper to adduce in this connec- 
tion the teachings of the apostles; for theirs are in- 
deed the complement of the teachings of Christ. He 
promised to give them his Spirit in order that they 
might formulate this with other doctrines; and he 
said, "He that heareth you heareth me." 

It will suffice, for our present purpose, to call at- 
tention to the great argument of Paul (I Cor. 15) in 
which he shows with consummate logic how the res- 



THE RESURRECTION 299 

urrection of Christ was in demonstration not only of 
his own divinity and power to save, but of the validity 
of preaching and of the trustworthiness of that "live- 
ly hope" which is entertained by all who believe in 
him. And where, in all literature, is anything grand- 
er or more inspiring than this ? "Behold, I show you 
a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be 
changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at 
the last trump. For the trumpet shall sound and 
the dead shall be raised incorruptible. So when this 
corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this 
mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be 
brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is 
swallowed up in victory. O death, w T here is thy sting? 
O grave, where is thy victory ? The sting of death is 
sin ; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks 
be to God, which giveth us the victory through our 
Lord Jesus Christ. — Therefore, my beloved brethren, 
be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the 
work of the Lord ; forasmuch as ye know that your 
labor is not in vain in the Lord" (I Cor. 15, 51-58). 
Our faith is not vain. Our preaching is not vain; 
our labor is not vain ; our hope is not vain. We stand 
among the sepulchers of those who lie in God's acre, 
and say confidently, "I know whom I have believed 
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I 
have committed unto him against that day." There 
is no waste. There is no failure. There are no broken 
columns and quenched torches of life. There are no 
heaven-inspired plans that come to naught. "Does 
death end all?" Nay, death is but the beginning of 
all. Life here is but the vestibule of life forever. We 
lay away our loved ones in the tomb, saying, "Earth 



3 oo THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust" ; but, blessed be 
God! we "look for the general resurrection and the 
life of the world to come through our Lord Jesus 
Christ; at whose advent the earth and the sea shall 
give up their dead and the corruptible bodies of them 
that sleep in him shall be made like unto his own glo- 
rious body." And above all sounds of weeping we 
hear the voice of him who said, "I am the Resurrec- 
tion and the Life!" 



XXIV 
THE DAY OF JUDGMENT 



XXIV 
THE DAY OF JUDGMENT 

The Judgment is a universal concept. It is found 
in all the false religions, except that of Confucius, 
which has no place for God or immortality. It runs 
through and through the Old Testament, where it is 
constantly associated with the coming of Christ ; as in 
Psalm 96: "Say among the heathen that the Lord 
reigneth. Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth 
be glad! Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof! 
Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein ! Then 
shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord : 
for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he 
shall judge the world with righteousness, and the peo- 
ple with his truth." In the mind of Israel all such 
prophecies had reference to the avengement of their 
national wrongs and the restoration of their political 
glory. The Son of David was to tread their enemies 
under foot and rule the nations with a rod of iron. 
This was the Judgment as they conceived it. 

But Christ, at his coming, gave its proper signifi- 
cance to this event. He projected it upon the skies 
and invested it with stupendous import. In his great 
Parousia discourse, he spoke in unmistakable terms of 
a Great Assize at which there would be a final adjust- 
ment of affairs ; as in this passage : "The Son of man 
shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with 
him; then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; 
and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he 

(3°3) 



304 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

shall separate them one from another as a shepherd 
divideth his sheep from the goats" (Matt. 25, 31. 32). 
We are left in uncertainty as to many particulars 
of the Judgment, our Lord's prophecy being design- 
edly interwoven with predictions of the destruction of 
Jerusalem and the Pentecostal miracle: but some 
things stand out in bold relief and may be affirmed 
without misgiving. 

I. The Fact. There can be no misunderstanding 
of Christ's words as to the Judgment (Lu. 10, 14) 
and "the Regeneration," or restitution of all things 
(Matt. 19, 28) ; or of those parables in which he viv- 
idly portrays the thrilling events of the Great Day. 

And this is in clear accord with the universal in- 
tuition. The doctrine of the Judgment is not derived 
from the teachings of Christ; he simply puts his offi- 
cial imprimatur upon it. The thought is involved in 
the very conception of God. If the present confused 
order is a complete economy, then the world is gov- 
erned either by chance or — which is a contradiction of 
terms — by an unjust God. If there is a Supreme Be- 
ing in the universe, he must, as Anne of Austria said, 
be "a sure paymaster." 

The thought of Judgment is also derived from the 
nature of man ; who is made in God's likeness and, as 
a normal being, is bound to have the full benefit of 
law. The lower orders are not so: if a dog shows 
himself to be incorrigibly vicious, he is shot, and that 
ends it; but immortal man cannot be disposed of in 
that way. He demands justice; and his Maker is 
bound, by the necessity of his nature, to grant it. 

II. The Judgment is to occur at a Definite Time. 
Christ refers to it as "the Great Day," "the Day of 



THE DAY OF JUDGMENT 305 

the Lord," "the Last Day," and 'That Day." Dies 
tree, dies ilia! 

"Great Day for which all other days were made: 
At thought of thee each sublunary wish 
Lets go its eager grasp, and drops the world, 
And catches at its reed of hope in heaven. 
Already is begun the Grand Assize 
In thee, in all. Deputed conscience scales 
The dread tribunal and forestalls our doom, — 
Forestalls, and by forestalling, proves it sure." 

It is frequently said that the Judgment is now go- 
ing on. This is true only so far as that oftentimes 
the consequences of sin are felt here and now. "The 
bones of the wicked are full of the sins of their youth." 
He who violates a physical law is pretty certain to in- 
cur the ills that human flesh is heir to. 

It cannot be allowed, however, that the present 
order is complete. This was the error of Job's friends, 
who maintained that God governs the world upon a 
principle of minute retribution, so that every man is 
rewarded or punished here according to his works. 
On the contrary, the present order is one of vast con- 
fusion. The wicked are not seldom exalted, so that 
they flourish like a green bay-tree : while the righteous 
go mourning all their days. How shall this be ac- 
counted for? Augustine says: "If no sins were 
punished in this present time, we should conclude that 
there is no God ; but if all sins were punished here and 
now, we should conclude that there is to be no Judg- 
ment." As matters are, we are constrained to follow 
the argument to its logical conclusion, which is the 
Judgment Day. 

It is scarcely necessary to say that the word "Day" 



3 o6 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

used in this connection is to be taken in its larger 
sense, as indicating a definite time. It is called "the 
Last Day" because it occurs upon the border line be- 
tween time and eternity, closing the temporal order. 
Present events are marked off by the swinging of the 
pendulum; there will be no chronometer in eternity. 
The procession of days will close with the Last Day. 
When the great angel shall stand, one foot upon the 
sea and the other upon the land, crying, "There shall 
be time no longer !" then the books will be opened and 
there will be a "restitution of all things." 

III. Christ will be the Judge. "He shall sit upon 
the throne of his glory." During his earthly ministry 
he disavowed the judicial function. He said, "God 
sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world ; 
but that the world through him might be saved" 
(John 3, 17) : and again, "I am come not to judge the 
world, but to save it" (John 12, 47). He refused to 
arbitrate a dispute about an inheritance, saying, "Man, 
who made me a judge or a divider over you?" (Lk. 
12, 14). In the case of the woman taken in adultery, 
he said, "Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no 
more" (John 8, 11). 

But he distinctly asserts that in the rounding up of 
the present dispensation he will assume and alone ex- 
ercise this function: "For the Father judgeth no 
man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son" 
(John 5, 22) ; "and hath given him authority to ex- 
ecute judgment, because he is the Son of man" (John 
5, 2y). As Son of man, that is, Messiah, he only is 
qualified to open the Book of Judgment: "And they 
sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the 
book, and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast 



THE DAY OF JUDGMENT 307 

slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of 
every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation ; 
and hast made us kings and priests unto our God" 
(Rev. 5, 9). As God, he knows man through and 
through ; and as man, he is able to sympathize with us. 
We say in common parlance, every man is entitled to 
be judged by his peers ; and, so far as this is con- 
cerned, there will be no occasion for complaint in the 
Great Day. 

The fact that the Redeemer is to sit upon the 
throne of judgment is fraught with fearful omens for 
those who reject him. 'They shall look on him whom 
they pierced" ; and the thought of their base folly and 
ingratitude will overwhelm them, so that they shall 
cry to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide 
us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, 
and from the wrath of the Lamb !" 

But there is infinite comfort in this thought to 
those who have loved and followed Christ. Their Sa- 
viour is their Judge; their Judge is their Advocate. 
In John's vision of the glorified Christ he says, "When 
I saw him I fell at his feet as dead: and he laid his 
right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am he that 
liveth, and was dead ; and, behold, I am alive forever- 
more; and have the keys of death and heir' (Rev. 1, 

17. 18). 

IV. As Christ is to be the Judge, so the assem- 
bled nations shall be the Jury. "And before him shall 
be gathered all nations." A vast assemblage! "Just 
behold that number!" The small and great; the just 
and unjust; all ages and generations of the children 
of men! The General Assize is come: the trumpet 
gives the summons : Oyez ! Oyez ! 



3 o8 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

"From Adam to the youngest heir 
Not one shall 'scape the muster-roll : 

Each, as if he alone were there, 

Shall stand, and win or lose his soul." 

The trial will be public. The books will be opened 
before the great assembly. Off with all masks! 
There will be no concealments on that day. Men 
walk in dominoes and disguises here; but there every 
one will be seen in propria persona. "For there is 
nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and there 
is nothing hid that shall not be known" (Matt. 10, 
26) ; and, "Whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness 
shall be heard in the light ; that which ye have spoken 
in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the 
housetops" (Lu. 12, 3). 

V. The principle upon which the Judgment will 
be administered is Impartiality. . The criterion will be 
an even balance. 

"In the corrupted currents of this world 
Offense's gilded hand may shove by justice; 
And in worst times the wretched price itself 
Buys out the law. But 'tis not so above; 
There is no shuffling there; the action lies 
In its true nature ; and we ourselves shall be compelled, 
E'en to the teeth and forehead of our faults, 
To give in evidence." 

Justice, perfect and absolute ! No mercy then, but 
adjudication under the exact terms of law. We are 
now living under grace; but this is a probationary 
period, and death ends it. Here we may make an ap- 
peal from justice to grace: but there will be no appeal 
in that day. The administration of justice will be so 
perfect, so impartial, that the worst sinner in the uni- 



THE DAY OF JUDGMENT 309 

verse will be quite satisfied that the Judge has dealt 
fairly with him. 

But justice means death; as it is written, "The 
soul that sinneth, it shall die." It is true that "he 
that doeth the law shall live by it"; but where in the 
world is there a man who has kept the law? By the 
deeds of the law, therefore, shall no flesh be justified ; 
for "there is none that doeth good, no not one." 

Are none to be saved, then? Yes; multitudes. 
And they shall be saved in strict accordance with jus- 
tice and under the most rigid terms of law. All who 
have believed in Jesus Christ shall enter into life. He 
will appear as their Advocate, saying, "I was wound- 
ed for their transgressions and bruised for their in- 
iquities ; I bare their sins in my own body on the tree ; 
I vindicated the Law; I satisfied Justice in expiating 
the penalty of their sin." They shall, therefore, go 
free. So shall God be manifestly "just and yet the 
justifier of the ungodly"; that is, of such as have com- 
plied with the conditions of his grace, by accepting 
Christ and putting their trust in him. 

In one of Luther's sermons he relates a dream, 
in which he seemed to stand before the Judgment bar. 
The books were opened and he saw his name, record- 
ed with a long catalogue of sins. The adversary, at 
his elbow, said, "Behold what thou hast done! Sins 
of omission and commission ; sins thoughtless and de- 
liberate; sins black and many; there is no hope for 
thee !" But to his great relief he saw, written across 
the page, "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us 
from all sin." So the touchstone of salvation is faith 
in Jesus Christ. "He that believeth hath everlasting 
life" (John 3, 36). 



3io THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

But this faith is to be measured by its results ; as 
the Lord said, "By their fruits ye shall know them"; 
and, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, 
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that 
doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven" 
(Matt. 7, 21-29). Let it be remembered, however, 
that the one work which is acceptable before God is 
acceptance of his grace; as Jesus said, "This is the 
work of God, that ye believe on him whom God hath 
sent." And all good works consequent upon this 
faith are such as proceed from gratitude to Christ and 
find their terminus in him. He gave a definition of 
a good work when he said to the disciples, who mur- 
mured because a certain woman had anointed him 
with precious nard, "Let her alone, she hath wrought 
a good work on me" And again, "Inasmuch as ye 
have done it unto one of the least of these my breth- 
ren ye have done it unto me." In other words, as the 
one unpardonable sin is the rejection of Christ, unpar- 
donable because it shuts the only door of mercy that 
was ever opened; so the one saving work, far- 
reaching and comprehensive, is the life beginning in 
faith and spent in the service of Christ. 

But what of those who have never heard of Christ 
or his Gospel? What is to become of the heathen? 
The God of justice will deal fairly with them. They 
will be judged by their light and not ours. The cir- 
cumstances of their case will be duly considered; and 
no one among them will have reason to complain of 
the outcome. The lines of procedure are laid down 
in the Parable of the Householder and his Servants: 
"And that servant which knew his lord's will and did 
it not and prepared not himself, neither did according 



THE DAY OF JUDGMENT 311 

to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he 
that knew not, and did commit things worthy of 
stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto 
whomsoever much is given of him shall much be re- 
quired" (Lu. 12, 47. 48). There are to be grades of 
punishment and degrees of happiness in eternity : and 
these will be meted out, not indiscriminately, but with 
a due regard for all the circumstances of each individ- 
ual case. 

There is deep meaning in these words: "Woe 
unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if 
the mighty works which were done in you had been 
done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented 
long ago in sackcloth and ashes. " The people of 
Tyre and Sidon had only the light of nature and "the 
law written in their members" to live by; but the in- 
habitants of Chorazin and Bethsaida knew the gospel 
and rejected it. And again, "The queen of the South 
shall rise up in the Judgment with the men of this 
generation and condemn them ; for she came from the 
utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solo- 
mon ; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. — 
The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the Judgment 
with this generation and shall condemn it; for they 
repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a 
greater than Jonas is here" (Lu. II, 31. 32). 

VI. The Final Separation ; "He shall separate them 
as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats." 
This is indicated also in the Parable of the Threshing- 
floor; tares to the fire, and wheat to the garner 
(Matt. 13, 37-43). — And in the Parable of the Tal- 
ents ; to the faithful servant, "Well done ; enter thou 
into the joy of thy Lord"; to the unprofitable servant, 



3 i2 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

"Cast ye him into outer darkness ; there shall be weep- 
ing and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 25, 14-30). — And 
in the Parable of the Ten Virgins; "They that were 
ready went in unto the marriage, and the door was 
shut." The wise are making merry within; the fool- 
ish are standing knocking, and crying vainly, "Lord, 
Lord, open unto us!" (Matt. 25, 1-12). — And in the 
Parable of Dives and Lazarus; "It came to pass that 
the beggar died and was carried by angels to Abra- 
ham's bosom; the rich man also died, and in hell he 
lifted up his eyes ; and between them there is a great 
gulf fixed" (Lu. 16, 19-31). Thus every man goes to 
"his own place"; that is, to the place for which his 
character has fitted him. 

The question whether this separation is to be 
local or not is of slight moment. We cannot speak 
of eternal facts in the terminology of time and space. 
The important matter is that the separation will be 
real. I know a man and wife who have lived under 
the same roof for fifty years, and have yet been as far 
apart as the poles. It is clear that the righteous and 
unrighteous shall have nothing in common in the fu- 
ture life; they shall pursue eternally diverging paths, 
because they are at odds in the matter of supreme im- 
portance, that is, their relation with God. 

One thing remains to be said : it is of God's mercy 
that we are warned in time. As yet we are living in 
the dispensation of grace. Life is offered gratis to all 
who will accept it. We may prefer to take our 
chances under the law. We may reject grace and in- 
sist on justice. This is for us to say. It is written of 
God that "he will not turn aside the right of a man 
from before the face of the Most High." But if a 



THE DAY OF JUDGMENT 313 

man is afraid of justice and wants mercy, he must ac- 
cept it here and now. There will be no appeal from 
Law in the Great Day. 

It is said that the people of St. Pierre, in the Island 
of Martinique, have heard the ominous rumbling of 
the volcano of Pelee for five years and have not heed- 
ed it. They ate and drank, married and were given 
in marriage until the great disaster befell them. God 
would have all men to be saved ; of which he has given 
proof in the sacrifice of his beloved Son. He that be- 
lieveth shall have everlasting life. If any man is lost, 
God is absolved. What more could he do that he 
hath not done ? Now is the accepted time ; and to-day 
is the day of salvation. 






XXV 
THE FUTURE LIFE 



XXV 
THE FUTURE LIFE 

In the philosophy of Jesus the natural man is under 
the dominion of death. The edict has gone forth, "The 
soul that sinneth, it shall die:" and, inasmuch as all 
have sinned, death has passed upon all. This is so dis- 
tinctly one of the postulates of the great Teacher that 
to deny it would be to make his doctrinal system null 
and void. 

To one who said, "Lord, I will follow thee, but 
suffer me first to go and bury my father," he replied, 
"Follow me and let the dead bury their dead"; by 
which he meant, "I call you to duties which can only 
be discharged by those who have entered into newness 
of life. The service cannot be waived or postponed 
or made secondary to secular tasks. Leave to the 
spiritually dead the tasks of the secular world." It 
was but another way of saying, "Seek first of all 
the kingdom of God." Here is a truth of vast im- 
portance, though Chrysostom calls it "a bitter arrow 
from the gentle hand of God." 

The coming of Christ into the world was, there- 
fore, as when one enters a graveyard. He came to call 
the spiritually dead to life. One who accepts Christ is 
rightly said to have entered into newness of life. The 
revivifying process is Regeneration, wrought by the 

(315) 



3 i6 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

Holy Ghost and characterized as "a resurrection from 
the dead." So Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say unto 
you, He that heareth my word and believeth on him 
that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come 
into condemnation but is passed from death unto life." 
And again, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is 
coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice 
of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live" (John 
5, 24. 25). It is obvious that the reference is not to 
the General Resurrection but to a resurrection here 
and now. A strong statement of the same truth was 
made by Jesus on his way to the cemetery" at Bethany. 
He said to Martha, "Thy brother shall rise again"; 
and when she answered, "I know that he shall rise 
again in the resurrection at the last day," he ex- 
plained, "I am the resurrection and the life; he that 
believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live : 
and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never 
die" (John 11, 24-26). 

It is apparent, then, that there are two kinds of 
people in the world: the dead and the living. The 
dead are such as have passed under the sentence of the 
offended law and have not been delivered from it; 
the living are such as, having accepted the call of Jesus 
and received the benefit of his expiatory passion, have 
passed from death unto life. They dwell among the 
spiritually dead, but they are alive unto God. They are 
in the world but not of it. It was of these that Jesus 
spoke in his sacerdotal prayer: "And now I am no 
more in the world, but these are in the world, and I 
come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own 
name those whom thou hast given me. I have given 
them thy word; and the world hath hated them, be- 



THE FUTURE LIFE 317 

cause they are not of the world; even as I am not of 
the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them 
out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them 
from the evil" (John 17, 11-16). 

The living and the dead mingle here in common 
pursuits and occupations, as tares and wheat grow 
together in the same field. But in fact, however closely 
they may be associated, they are traveling by different 
roads. "For broad is the way that leadeth to destruc- 
tion, and many there be which go in thereat ; and nar- 
row is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there 
be that find it" (Matt. 7, 13-14). There are two ways 
only, divergent ways, each having its proper destina- 
tion. The spiritually dead, who throng the broad way, 
come at length to the darkness of an unbroken night. 
But those who live in Christ come to Zion with songs 
and everlasting joy upon their heads. This parting of 
the ways shall be made manifest at the Great Day. 

As to the destination of the impenitent our Lord 
speaks in unmistakable terms. It is Hell. We utter 
the word with bated breath ; but Christ did not shrink 
from using it, nor does he leave us in any uncertainty 
as to its awful meaning. There must be plain speak- 
ing if he would deal fairly with men. The same lov- 
ing lips that said, "Come unto me all ye that labor and 
are heavy laden and I will give you rest," said also, 
"If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out ; it is better for 
thee to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than 
having two eyes to be cast into the fire of hell" (Mark 
9, 47). If there be a hell and Jesus knew it, he must 
needs light all possible beacons to admonish the chil- 
dren of men. 

I. At the bottom of our Lord s teaching, in these 



3 i8 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

premises, lies the thought that sin's punishment is 
persistency in sin. 

The law works automatically, so that the impeni- 
tent are "condemned already" ; sin itself having passed 
its sentence upon them (John 3, 18). The future state 
is but a cumulative continuance of the present life. 
Thus our Lord said to his enemies, "If ye believe not, 
ye shall die in your sins" (John 8, 21-24). And "as 
death leaves men, eternity finds them." So Milton 
writes : 

"The mind is its own place, and in itself 
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven." 
And Shakespeare, in Macbeth's remorseful words: 

"What hands are here? Ha! they pluck out mine eyes! 
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood 
Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather 
The multitudinous seas incarnadine, 
Making the green one red." 

And Byron, in his Giaour : 

"The mind that broods o'er guilty woes 
Is like the scorpion girt by fire: 
In circle narrowing as it glows, 
The flames around their captive close; 
Till inly scorched by thousand throes, 
And inly maddening in her ire, 
One only sole relief she knows; 
The sting she nourished for her foes, 
Whose venom never yet was vain, 
Gives but one pang, and cures all pain, 
She darts into her desperate brain. 
So do the dark in soul expire, 
Or live like scorpion girt by fire; 
So writhes the mind remorse hath riven, 
Unfit for earth, undoomed for heaven; 
Darkness above, despair beneath, 
Around it flame, within it death." 



THE FUTURE LIFE 319 

In other words, sin fastening itself upon the soul 
with the grip of irresistible habit, becomes its own 
punishment. This word "habit" is significant, being 
derived from habeo and meaning the thing that holds 
us. The man who squanders the opportunities and 
privileges of these probationary years, living in im- 
penitence and dying unshriven, is like the meteor that, 
exceeding the bounds of centripetal attraction, enters 
the infinite fields of space as an irreclaimable wanderer. 
It shuts itself up to the pathway of eternal transgres- 
sion. 

II. The hell of which Jesus speaks is represented 
also as a continuance in death. 

Sin and death go hand in hand. Let it be remem- 
bered that the impenitent are represented as being 
under the dominion of death here and now. On pass- 
ing into eternity they are still spiritually dead; they 
have merely crossed the line of probation and passed 
beyond the possibilities of entering into life. The 
death referred to is not extinction. Our Lord men- 
tions it in terms of vivid significance ; such as "damna- 
tion" or "condemnation" (Mk. 16, 16), "perdition" 
(John 3, 16), destruction of both body and soul (Matt. 
10, 28), a cutting asunder (Matt. 24, 51), a grinding 
to powder (Lu. 20, 18) : but in all these references 
there is a continuance of personality or self-conscious- 
ness. The death indicated is such that it destroys the 
nobler fibers of being while the soul lives on. 

In the case of Judas it was said, "Good were it for 
that man if he had never been born" (Mk. 14, 21) ; 
which surely could not have been said had death ended 
all. There is no "capital punishment" in the spiritual 
province. Such a sentence, when inflicted in earthly 



3 2o THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

courts, is not primarily for penal ends but to rid so- 
ciety of the criminal. The real punishment is the 
"death watch." 

" There is a death whose pang 
Outlives this fleeting breath: 
O, what eternal horrors hang 
Around the second death!" 

A severe strain was put upon the metaphorical use 
of language by our Lord in his endeavor to set forth 
adequately the consequences of sin. He spoke of it 
as "the fire that is never quenched," as "the worm 
that dieth not" (Mk. 9, 43-48). He said, "There shall 
be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth" (Lu. 
13, 28). He used the figure of a debtor's prison, where 
the soul that has refused to let Christ pay its ransom 
is shut up until the uttermost farthing is paid (Matt. 
18, 23-31). He associated with it all the bitter pangs 
of remorse and self-accusation; the realization of an 
unspeakable folly in having lost the opportunity of 
life ; the bitter contemplation of a mislived past. "Son, 
remember" (Lu. 16, 25). Let it be granted that these 
are mere figures of speech ; it still remains, that Christ 
would never have used them, had he not desired in all 
candor and tenderness to admonish the impenitent of 
dangers which plainer speech could not express. Nor 
must these "hard sayings" of Jesus be taken by them- 
selves, but always in connection with his clear indica- 
tion of the way of life and his constant entreaty, 
"Come unto me" (Matt. 11, 28). 

III. One of the most significant factors in this 
penalty is the segregation of the lost. 

They are "separated" from the righteous and con- 
signed to their "own place." They are shut up with those 



THE FUTURE LIFE 321 

of congenial tastes. It does not relieve the situation 
to say that they would not have it otherwise; which 
is indeed true. To those who have confirmed themselves 
in evil habits and associations, there is obviously one 
place more intolerable than hell ; that is, heaven. To 
be obliged to associate with the spiritually-minded 
would be greater torture than to suffer on in the fel- 
lowship of kindred souls. In this life they were of the 
earth earthy; how shall they feel at home in eternity 
with those whose supreme pleasure is the service of 
God? The man who, having one talent, misused it, 
will no longer be oppressed with fear and trembling 
lest he may not satisfy his "hard master," since his one 
talent shall be taken away from him (Matt. 25, 28. 29). 
This will be the sorrow of the unprofitable ; that, being 
absolved from the responsibilities of service, they are 
doomed to be unprofitable forever. In the Parable of 
the Drag-net the worthless fish are "cast away" 
(Matt. 13, 47-49) ; and in the acted Parable of the 
Barren Fig-tree, the Lord says, "No man eat fruit 
of thee hereafter forever" (Mk. 11, 14). 

Let it be remembered, in this connection, that 
Christ, while setting forth in clearest terms this segre- 
gation of the incorrigibly wicked, forestalls it by a 
constant call to service in the kingdom. Whoever 
would be among the profitable in the eternal world 
must serve an apprenticeship in this present life. 
Wherefore he says to the idlers in the market place, 
"Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right 
I will give you" (Matt. 20, 4). 

IV. But the climacteric of spiritual death is in the 
fact that it means exile from God. 

This is the significance of the Lord's words, "De- 



322 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

part from me" (Matt. 7, 21-23). Here is the utter- 
most misery of hell. And its awful significance must 
ever be considered in the light of the merciful and 
ample provision which Christ has made against it. In 
order that he might drain the very dregs of the cup 
of expiation, he had momentary experience of this 
exile when, in his agonizing death, he cried, "My God ! 
my God! why hast thou forsaken me?" It is with 
reference to that last and bitterest moment of his 
vicarious pain, that many of us are accustomed to in- 
terpret the words of the historic creed of the universal 
Church, "He descended into hell.^ And this death 
he "tasted for every man" (John 12, 32), so that its 
full benefits are freely offered on the sole condition of 
faith in him (John 3, 16). 

This is the "outer darkness" (Matt. 22, n-13) into 
which the impenitent are "thrust out" (Lu. 13, 28) ; 
and the reason, as stated by Jesus himself, is because 
they have rejected the proffers of divine mercy in the 
gift of salvation through his only-begotten Son (Matt. 
21, 32-44). All other sins may be forgiven; but, 
obviously, there is no pardon for those who refuse the. 
one proffer of pardon in this grace of God. 

We turn now to a consideration of Heaven as 
Christ painted it. This is the destination of those who, 
by accepting him, have entered into life and have jour- 
neyed along the narrow way. 

A. The fundamental thought in this connection, as 
we should expect, is sinlessness. 

This is "the wedding garment" which must of 
necessity be assumed by all who enter the marriage 
feast (Matt. 22, 1-14). In the visions of the 
Apocalypse this wedding garment is said to be of 



THE FUTURE LIFE 323 

"fine linen clean and white, which is the righteous- 
ness of saints." Sin is forever gone, its shame and 
bondage and remorse; and the redeemed are clothed 
in that holiness, without which no man shall see God. 

B. Add to this the continuance of life; not the 
life which consists in "years and figures on a dial," but 
in the larger sense in which Christ conceived and offers 
it. The spiritual life begins on earth in Regenera- 
tion; and Regeneration is conditioned on faith, as 
Jesus said: "He that believeth on the Son hath ever- 
lasting life" (John 3, 36) : but its consummation is 
in the other world. There are foretastes by the way, 
but the milk and honey are beyond the wilderness. 
Eternal life ! Who shall explain or describe it ? "Eye 
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into 
the heart of man the things which God hath prepared 
for them that love him." 

C. One of the most familiar figures by which 
Christ characterizes heaven is "the Kingdom." 

"They shall come from the east and from the west 
and from the north and from the south and sit down 
in the kingdom of God" (Lu. 13, 29). The beginning 
of the Kingdom is here and now ; as it is written, "The 
kingdom of God is within you" (Lu. 17, 21) ; but its 
full glory awaits us. 

The entrance into it is by inheritance (Matt. 19, 
29) ; that is, it is not earned but conferred by divine 
grace on those who accept Christ as their Saviour from 
sin. But the noble rights and privileges of the king- 
dom are given as a reward for faithful service (Matt. 
6, 1-18; Lu. 18, 29-30). Its joys are set forth under 
the frequent figure of a feast. The redeemed are "sat- 
isfied"; they "laugh for joy" (Lu. 6, 21). It is an 



324 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

estate of service and usefulness. Those who faithfully 
use their talents here are promoted to larger tasks; 
they are given "dominion over ten cities." And in the 
possession of these privileges they are eternally se- 
cure. The kingdom is set forth under the figure of 
a sheepfold into which the wolf never enters (John 
10, 1 6). It is a house which no thief invades (Matt. 
6, 19). Its happy people are as safe as in the hollow 
of God's hand (John 10, 28. 29). The gates of hell 
shall not prevail against them. 

D. And heaven is home. 

"In my father's house are many mansions, if it 
were not so I would have told you; I go to prepare 
a place for you" (John 14, 2). The reason the word 
"house" is used in this passage is because there was no 
word for home in the Greek or the Aramaic tongue. 
We have here the prophecy of the final reunion of 
saints. *For home is more than four walls and a shel- 
tering roof; it is more than beauty of decoration; 
it is above all the society of loved ones. Of the final 
reunion and recognition of those who are bound to- 
gether here in Christian ties there can be no shadow 
of doubt. It is true that Jesus says the inhabitants 
of heaven "neither marry nor are given in marriage" 
(Lu. 20, 35. 36) : but this does not signify that the 
marital bond, which is divinely sealed on earth, shall 
not continue in the heavenly life. The carnal side of 
all earthly relations shall cease, since "flesh and blood 
cannot inherit the kingdom of God" : but all that is 
fair and pleasant and pure in this present world shall 
be continued among those who, unclothed of flesh, 
shall be "as the angels of God." In that life the fel- 
lowship of believers will be perpetuated and perfected. 



THE FUTURE LIFE 325 

We shall then, for the first time, know and appreciate 
the full significance of the blessed kinship that comes 
to us through our fraternal relation with Christ, the 
elder Brother of us all. 

E. But, above everything else, heaven, in the teach- 
ing of Jesus, stands for communion with God. 

Its inhabitants shall "see God" (Matt. 5, 18), and 
shall abide with him in whose presence is fulness of 
joy. It is not intimated here that mortal eyes shall ever 
gaze on the essential Deity ; but we shall behold the 
Son who, in his theanthropic Person, is forever God 
manifest to men. He will confess his followers there, 
as they have confessed him here (Matt. 10, 22. 23). 
His promise is, "Where I am, there shall also my 
servant be." And this is his imperial decree. Never 
was prayer, before or since, offered in such imperative 
terms as these, "Father, I will, that they whom thou 
hast given me may be with me where I am ; that they 
may behold my glory which thou hast given me" (John 
17, 24). This is explained by Paul where he says, 
"The Lord himself shall descend from heaven w r ith a 
shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the 
trump of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise first : 
then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught 
up together with them in the clouds: and so shall 
we ever be with the Lord" (I Thess. 4, 16. 17). 

The word "forever" is significant. Our Lord in 
his teaching rings the changes upon it: Ever, never, 
forever, eternal, everlasting. All these expressions 
have been put upon the rack and tortured to wring 
some other meaning from them, but wholly in vain. 
It is difficult to see how any honest student of the 
teachings of Jesus can intimate the possibility of what 



326 THE WONDERFUL TEACHER 

is called "the larger hope." He says that the gulf 
between the lost and the saved is "fixed," so that "they 
which would pass over cannot" (Lu. 16, 26). How is 
it fixed ? By the divine decree ? Yes. The sentence of 
the court has been passed upon the incorrigibly sinful. 
This, however, is merely a forensic seal put upon the 
edict of the law, "The soul that sinneth it shall die." 
Jesus says the door is shut (Matt. 25, 10) ; but if it 
were open, the decree would still remain; the law is 
stronger than bolts and bars. If it were supposable 
that the law itself should be blotted out, yet would 
there be no crossing of the bridgeless gulf: for the 
separation of the righteous and unrighteous is perpetu- 
ated by the final crystallization of character. The 
twelve gates of heaven are never shut (Rev. 21, 25) ; 
yet the righteous "go no more out forever," nor can 
the unrighteous enter in. To the former there is no 
possibility of falling from grace; and in the hearts 
of the latter, owing to the formulation of an eternal 
habit, there can be no desire to pass in through those 
open gates into an uncongenial association with the 
children of God. 



We have reached the end of our topical survey of 
the Teachings of Jesus, and are more than ever filled 
with amazement at the vast reach and power of his 
words. Truly, never man spake like this Man ! How 
few and brief were his discourses ; yet they have to do 
with every truth and precept in the circumference of 
human life. And with respect to every doctrine and 
every principle in ethics, his teaching is practically ex- 
haustive. We sit at his feet as reverent truth-seekers, 
willing to hear and obey. His words are deeper, 



THE FUTURE LIFE 327 

broader, higher than we ever conceived them to be. 
We are told of an "undertone of Niagara," which 
the casual visitor seldom hears. His ears are filled 
with the splash and rumble of the torrent as it hurls 
itself over the cliff ; but let him listen ! It comes to 
him at last ; the deep keynote of the fall, louder, richer, 
grander, deeper than all else. The murmur of the 
river, the noise of the cataract, are lost in the far-off 
thunder from the reverberating caves beneath. So must 
the true disciple of Jesus put himself in an attentive 
and receptive attitude. "He that hath ears to hear let 
him hear." The full significance of the words of the 
great Teacher comes not to the inattentive soul; it 
comes not to the man whose personal opinions and 
prejudices are allowed to stand between him and God. 
The multitude hear a sound from above. Now and 
then one cries, "It thundereth I" Another says, "It is 
the voice of an angel !" But, O ! there is something 
vaster and sublimer here. Bend low! Bid every 
thought be still! It is a "Thus saith the Lord!" O 
thou that darkenest counsel by words without knowl- 
edge, put thy hand upon thy mouth ! God speaks : let 
all the earth keep silence before him! 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 



The Religions of the World Phiia., isss 

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